The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon
by The Cajun Phoenix
Summary: Maryl Goldan and Remy Silver begin their WWE journey in this first story of "The Queen of Queens" series. Want to know more? Keep reading! THIS STORY IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH! OCsXevery WWE SuperstarXevery WWE Diva
1. First Night

_**The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon**_

_**by The Cajun Phoenix**_

A/N: I don't own any of the WWE Superstars and WWE Divas in this story based on them. I only own Maryl Goldan, Remy Silver, Ben Marchand, Lisa Bradshaw, and Evan Spiars and their respective family members, all of them a handful of my Create-A-Superstars from the "SmackDown Vs Raw" video game series. Except where otherwise indicated, Maryl's thoughts and flashbacks are written in italics. Remy's thoughts and flashbacks are written in boldface. And the introductory titles and the couple's shared thoughts when both are on the same chapter are written in boldfaced italics. I also don't own any of the songs I've chosen for my Create-A-Superstars'/Create-A-Divas' entrance themes. This chapter "First Night" begins the first story of "The Queen of Queens" series. This story, titled "The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Dragon, " details how Maryl's and Remy's careers in the WWE began, and is otherwise fictional. Reviews and feedback are always welcome but flames are not welcome.

First Night

Maryl Goldan stared at her surroundings with haggard, dark brown eyes and wondered whether or not she had just stumbled into the wrong building. She was about to make her WWE debut in Trenton, New Jersey.

Most of the people in the backstage area were gymnasts, bodybuilders, dancers, and every other type imaginable. Maryl had NOTHING in common with this crowd. Add her silver tongue ring, her silver butterfly navel ring, her silver necklace, her yellow gold and silver championship belt earrings, and her over-dyed black jeans, her black leather lace-up boots that didn't reach much higher than the middle of her short and stocky calves, and her cropped black-and-red T-shirt and it only took a few seconds for her outsider status to register for her.

She had just received the call-up and had signed a "SmackDown" contract with Theodore R. Long, "SmackDown"'s General Manager, making her "SmackDown"'s newest Diva.

_From what I've been able to piece together so far, this bitch who's been fucking the other Divas' boyfriends and husbands behind their backs doesn't stop at the Superstars. A couple of former Divas and FCW Divas who didn't get the call-up all flinched when I got my contract. Do they all know something about her that I don't? None of them seemed too willing to speak to me when the match card was announced._

She tied back her dark brown braids with a black-and-white ponytail scrunchie before picking up her black-and-gold rolling backpack and proceeded to unpack the clothes she would wear for her debut match. It would be a non-title singles match between Maryl and the reigning WWE Women's Champion Michelle McCool. If Maryl could defeat Michelle, she could become a future #1 Contender for Michelle's title.

Maryl didn't go through all that training just to be anybody's arm candy or valet. Nor did she limit her in-ring practice to sparring with Divas. She had one primary aim-becoming the WWE Women's Champion. She also considered adding more than the Women's title and possibly the WWE Divas' Championship to her championship collection if all went well for her.

In spite of her bravado, Maryl realized almost everybody literally dwarfed her.

Almost everybody male, that is.

She barely dared to breathe let alone speak when she sidestepped past a tall, massive behemoth in a black hat, black trenchcoat, black singlet, and black tights and boots carrying the massive gold World Heavyweight Championship on his right shoulder. Several others looked at her as if to ask her if she was a ring rat.

_If I was a ring rat, I'd be sitting at ringside, not backstage! Leave me the fuck alone and stop mad-dogging me like I'm a common street whore because I'm not hearing you!_

She made her way to the Divas' Locker Room without another word.

Once she was inside the Divas' Locker Room, Maryl pored over her outfit for her debut match and exhaled. Both her cropped T-shirt and her shorts were over-dyed in neon green and electric purple before they were splatter-dyed in the deepest shade of black possible.

Her standout accessory wasn't her black-and-gold leather belt sporting a battered black-and-silver buckle with the words "Sexy Girl" carved and beveled in jagged, rusty red Gothic-style letters. Nor was that accessory her electric purple and neon green fishnet stockings. It wasn't even her lace-up work boots.

It was her open-linked chain necklace with five different pendant designs on display. She had used two pairs of pliers to arrange these five designs in this order-purple "HB" symbol, jagged silver "J" symbol, silver "HB" symbol, silver "MHV1" symbol, and two-toned blue-green "HB" symbol. If she found more designs, she could always add to her necklace later. This was one of several necklaces Maryl had customized ever since she began collecting WWE pendants and TNA pendants several years earlier. She pried apart several pendants of one Superstar and put all the pendants on one chain before reworking and welding the rings and links closed, creating one of several super-pendants that reflected her predilection toward over-the-top fashion statements outside the ring.

Maryl stripped down to her black-and-white bra and thong and pulled on her in-ring outfit as easily as though she was wrapping a bottle of wine. Her reddish brown hair framed a perfectly reddish face and body and was restrained by a tie-dyed neon green, electric purple, and midnight black bandanna.

_I'll bet my metal-working equipment that none of the other Divas has ever thought about wearing leg stockings with their in-ring gear. Since heavy cleavage and butt cheeks are not really fashionable, the leg stockings are my way of_ _adding some much-welcome sensual appeal to the Divas' Locker Room._

Maryl straightened her bandanna and gave her shorts a final adjustment before threading her black-and-gold belt through the belt loops. She adjusted her black knee pads, her black elbow pads, her black ripped-up arm sleeves, and her black leather fingerless gloves before securing her backpack's zippers with small identical padlocks that unlocked with one key. She pulled on a sliced-up pair of tie-dyed neon green, electric purple, and midnight black arm sleeves over the black sleeves and set out.

Before Maryl could make her way out of the locker room, she was pushed head-first against the lockers, slamming her wide, low forehead against one of the locker dividers.

"Why don't you watch where you're going, you fat slut?" snapped a drawling, irritable female voice as Maryl slowly turned around to see who had pushed her against the locker divider. The bruise on the side of Maryl's head was starting to turn purple, almost black.

Maryl's brown eyes darkened with fury when she saw the sky blue-and-white-clad Women's Champion looking down her nose at her. Then Michelle turned her stony, sinister gaze toward Maryl's massive breasts and stared at her with a partially open mouth as if Maryl had two Persian melons in plain view. Maryl's eyes bulged in shock and then rage as she began to take in Michelle's gaping facial expression.

_Flashback_

_"There's no way I'm gonna continue this one-sided arrangement with you, " Maryl spat in disgust as she allowed her revelation about Ben Marchand's deception to sink in for her. For the last three years, Maryl had a strained sexual relationship with the taller, more muscular Ben. Last year, she began to lose patience when he made no effort to officially declare Maryl and himself a couple. _

_It was at the New Year's Eve party and Ben had abandoned her and stolen her car even though she had refused to turn her car keys over to him. The morning after was where Maryl came to the conclusion that she deserved better than to continue being second fiddle to Ben._

_"What the fuck are you blathering about NOW, woman?" he glared at Maryl with icy anger darkening his hazel eyes._

_"You left me to get a fucking cab after you steal MY car last night and you've got the gall to ask me what the fuck I'M blathering about, Ben?" Maryl was beyond livid over Ben's blatant disrespect toward her wishes, and she was beyond caring about his temper tantrums._

_"We can talk about this later-"_

_"NO! We hash this out NOW or you can just hand over the house keys right now and never come back, " Maryl flipped every chair onto its side, refusing to allow Ben to sit down._

_In spite of seeing all the chairs piled into the corner onto their sides, Ben still didn't take Maryl's warnings seriously. "You think I can't turn the chairs right side up? I'm NOT leaving-"_

_"You fucking LIED to me about not having another woman waiting in the background, Ben!" Maryl threw every photo of Ben's mystery woman at him and then proceeded to throw all of Ben's things into a cardboard box, not caring if she broke his things in the process. "And you've got the gall to call ME a cockteaser and a prude when you won't even return the favor for me!"_

_As far as Maryl was concerned, she had every right to be furious with Ben over the double standard-he expected Maryl to drop everything for him yet he wouldn't do the same thing for her.  
_

"_Maryl, you knew what I did for a living when you met me, " the black-haired man said angrily, but his words fell on deaf and furious ears as Maryl continued to pack his things._

_"So that gives you the right to let your ring rat tramps track their stank and their scum through MY apartment? You and your ring rats make me wanna puke!"_

_"It's OUR apartment, Maryl, and if I wanna-"_

_Maryl cut Ben off before he could finish that sentence._

_"No, Ben, the lease is in MY name, not in OUR names, " she corrected her unrepentant boyfriend as she grabbed a copy of the receipts she kept. _

_"Big fucking deal!" he sneered._

_"That means it's MY apartment!" she spat as she continued to throw the rest of his things into the box. "It's NOT OUR apartment-it never was and it never will be!"  
_

_Ben made a living as a mixed martial arts fighter and Maryl ran, owned, and operated Goldan's Gloves, a shop that sold boxing equipment and gear. _

_In spite of the fact that Maryl brought in most of the money, however, Ben still thought he could tell her what to do with her earnings even though he did next to nothing to contribute to their relationship or their standard of living. _

_Two months before the New Year's Eve party that foreshadowed the end for them as a couple, Maryl had already thrown out three ring rats Ben had the gall to bring into her apartment. She knew what a ring rat usually was-a young woman or more rarely a young man who followed the fighters around for sex. Yet for every ring rat Maryl threw out of her apartment, Ben usually brought in two or three more with a vengeance. Maryl was tired of having to clean up Ben's excesses and she decided that Ben would give up the ring rats or he would give up his relationship with her._

_"If you'd been a more responsive fuck, Maryl, you wouldn't have to deal with the other girls now!"_

_"Don't blame me for your choice to cheat on me with those ring rats, you selfish, disrespectful scumfucker!"_

_"The way I see it, those 'ring rats' are better in bed than you are!"_

_Maryl's face crumpled and for a moment, she looked as if she was going to cry. Ben was hardly the first person to ridicule her for her refusal to perform sexual acts just because they pulled the battered "It's what a real woman should be willing to do!" card whenever she protested "My pleasure matters-if not to you, then to me!" _

_But hearing Ben say those hated words was the last thing he would ever say to her. She was done putting her needs last and she was done with Ben's disrespectful behavior._

_"Fuck your ring rats, fuck your 'living', and fuck you! When you want something from me, you belittle me when I say "No!" to you! But when I want something from you, you ridicule me as though I'm less than NOTHING to you!"_

_"What's that supposed to mean?"_

_"It means I'm done being your bitch and I'm done putting my needs at the bottom! If you won't give you and me your undivided attention without taking me for granted, I don't want you as my boyfriend or as my husband!"_

_"Maryl, I-"_

_"I should NOT have to share MY boyfriend with another woman! And I've got every cause to bitch after the way you left me and stole MY car and brought it back stinking of your whore!" Maryl's lips went pale with her fury. "And you think you can steal MY car when you want? It's NOT your car at all, Ben!"_

_"If you'd have given me the car keys or even a blowjob, Maryl-"_

_"Just get the fuck outta MY apartment right now, Benjamin Alexis Marchand!"_

_Ben didn't believe what Maryl had just said to him._

_"You think it's YOUR apartment now, you pathetic cunt?"_

_"It IS my apartment and you're not welcome here anymore!"  
_

_"If you think you're gonna just throw me out with the trash-"  
_

_"And my keys I gave you? I want them back right now!" she demanded, holding out her hands for her apartment keys, including Ben's keys. "Do you hear me? Just get the fuck outta my apartment and never darken my doorstep again, you selfish, self-righteous, pathetic excuse for a sexual partner!" _

_"Who the fuck do you think you are, you ungrateful-"_

_Maryl's slap stopped Ben from finishing his tirade about why he should still be allowed to stay in her apartment after he'd already cheated on her with the ring rats out of spite.  
_

_"You demand that I get down on my knees for you but you refuse to do the same for me? Yeah, that makes you a selfish bastard who doesn't deserve another minute of my time! I deserve better than what you've given me, and it's time for me to get out there and take what's mine!"_

_What Maryl ended up taking was a face-rattling fist to her left eye and several hideous bruises to her back and torso. But she refused to cower in fear, and she refused to let Ben stay in her apartment another minute. She clobbered Ben with his mixed martial arts trophy, shattering it into pieces and making his face bleed._

_This was why Maryl failed to see the blow to her back coming, as she was sent sprawling face-first to the faded orange paisley carpet that covered her floors everywhere except the kitchen and the bathroom._

_"Get the fuck away from me!" she screamed, scratching Ben's eyes and all but reaching for anything to use as a weapon to stop Ben from causing further injuries to her, wincing at the stench of stale sweat and drugs on Ben's body. Ben's lack of hygiene was another reason Maryl didn't want him touching her let alone why she refused to have sex with him. "I never want to see or hear you again!"_

_Maryl kicked, scratched, even bit her now-former boyfriend to defend herself, only to feel her arms pinioned and tied to either bedpost as she continued to flail at Ben with her legs._

_"No! Get the fuck off of me!" she screamed, refusing to open her legs as she strained to free her wrists from the bedposts, her face red, blanched, and sweaty from her desperate bid to force Ben to leave her apartment. "I'm done being your bitch! You can't treat me like you do your ring rats, you limp-dicked jackoff!"_

_She continued to cry and scream as many insults and swear words as she could even though her clothes were all but ripped off of her._

_"Take these goddamned things off my wrists NOW!"_

_"I decide when this is over, cunt!" growled Ben as he ignored Maryl's demands that he untie her and leave her apartment before he violated her._

_"Get the fuck off me!" she cried, trying everything she could to force him to get off of her and let her go even though she felt as though she was being ripped apart.  
_

_Instead, he continued to slam into her, not caring about the pain he was inflicting on her and not caring about her screams of agony.  
_

_"You fucking bastard, " she rasped, spitting in Ben's face even as she began to bleed from the abuse, "I kick your pathetic ass to the curb and you've got the gall to answer me back by raping me? You're no longer my boyfriend or anybody else to me!"_

_Instead of stopping, Ben continued to inflict further misery on Maryl as the bruises on her thighs, back, and belly began to turn a hideous purple._

_"Now will you give me your car keys?" he asked, growling as Maryl began to lose consciousness._

_This was enough to snap her out of unconsciousness if only for a moment.  
_

_"No!" Maryl knew what Ben's more rapid pace of violence meant, but she was pinioned and unable to stop him from defiling her just as she'd been unable to stop him from defiling her apartment and her car. "I never want to see or hear you again, you useless scumfucker, and you're not getting my car keys either!" _

_Hot, salty tears dripped down Maryl's face as she realized how much damage Ben had inflicted. Her cunt felt as though it had been shredded into pieces. Ben withdrew from her without even bothering to tend to her or at least put a towel under her.  
_

_"We'll see about that, " Ben looked down at Maryl as he zipped up his jeans, the wry smirk curling his lips indicative of his lack of remorse for what he left behind in his wake._

_End of Flashback_

"No Diva has tits like THAT, " the Women's Champion murmured as Maryl continued to glare at her with bared teeth and mottled face. She tried to peel off Maryl's T-shirt and got her hands swatted away for her trouble.

"Looks like this makes you a ring rat who is only backstage for one reason-" Michelle sneered, zeroing in on Maryl's "Sexy Girl" belt and trying to unbuckle it even though Maryl was pushing her hands away from her waist. Instead of cowering to the side, Maryl slapped Michelle across her face hard enough to leave an ugly red welt that would soon swell and leave Michelle screaming for an ice pack.

"What the Hell was that for, you-?"

Maryl let loose with closed fists that connected with Michelle's face and smaller breasts, sending the Women's Champion falling to the floor. She then knelt on top of Michelle, pinning her and all but spitting in her face with every word.

"Watch where I'M going?" Maryl glared at the taller, leaner blonde who had pushed her face-first into the lockers and was now underneath her and completely at her mercy-or at her lack of mercy. "You're the one who shoved me first, you self-righteous, flat-assed gutter whore!"

Michelle began hitting at the heavier Maryl with everything she had, but the newcomer refused to budge and began grabbing at her wrists. Before Michelle could push Maryl off of her, Maryl seized the Women's Champion into an excruciatingly painful armbar and sleeper hold combination and refused to release her grip even when the Women's Champion groaned and struggled to free her head and arm from Maryl's hold. It took the other "SmackDown" Divas to get Maryl to let go of Michelle.

_This was NOT how I wanted my first night to begin. _

Maryl glared back at the blonde's twisted arm and swollen face before putting her now-padlocked backpack into her locker.

"Way for you to knock Michelle down and not let her get back up, " a chirpy female voice said from Maryl's left.

"Who?" Maryl asked, not comprehending what the speaker just said.

"You have a match against Michelle McCool and you just knocked her to the floor, " the chirpy voice continued.

"She took a swing at me first. All I did was defend myself, " Maryl said wryly, getting a closer look at the girl who spoke to her. The speaker was a slimmer redhead with green eyes and pouty lips, and her ring gear was a shimmery light purple.

"Who's the new girl, Maria?" asked the short, curvy brunette to Maryl's right. She was dressed in an olive green top and black slacks and she was putting on her black high heels.

Maryl looked even more bewildered than she normally would. _Now I know I'm in the wrong building._

"You mean the girl who gave Michelle what she deserved, Mickie? " said the redhead. Maryl deduced the redhead was Maria and the brunette was Mickie. "She's right between us."

Maryl's face blanched when Maria and Mickie both got a good frontal view of her, and she didn't see what gave either Diva cause to give her the once-over.

_I'm NOT a fucking sideshow freak, so why the fuck are the two of you gawking at my tits and ass like a couple of sex-crazed pit bulls just drooling to get to the pedigreed bitch who lives next door to them?_

"Do you think she'd agree to team up with us against Layla, Michelle, and Beth?" asked Mickie.

"Wha-what is going on here and who are you two?" Maryl exclaimed, getting a good look at the two Divas who in return got a good look at her.

The two Divas introduced themselves to Maryl as she tried to keep their names straight. Maria Kanellis was the chirpy redhead. And Mickie James was the Diva with lighter brown hair. Layla El was the British-born former Miami Heat dancer with frizzy black hair and caramel skin-and she was also Michelle's girlfriend. Natalya Neidhart was the first-born daughter of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and one-third of The Hart Dynasty. Beth Phoenix was the heavier, more muscular blonde Diva and Mickie's biggest rival from their years on "Raw."

_How do the Superstars and Divas manage to stay patient in this holding tank?_ Maryl was already chewing a wad of Extra Polar Ice long before she even set foot into the arena and she was already losing her patience with the technicians and everybody else.

"Who's the scary-looking new girl?" she heard one of the male Superstars ask as the shorter blond Superstar in the purple-and-silver trunks eyed her with disdain and coldness.

"Who the Hell cares?" the blond snapped rudely at the first Superstar, a lean, muscular, dark-haired high-flyer with a gold-flecked burgundy ankle-length coat and matching tights.

But the blond would live to regret his nasty words, as Maryl kicked him in his shin and again in his groin as hard as she could.

_You will! Next time, say that to my face, you self-righteous cocksucker! And that's when I'll knock your spiky-haired ass the fuck out!_

"You were saying, Chris-?" the first Superstar asked as Chris held onto his shin where Maryl had just kicked him.

"Shut the Hell up, John, " he snapped as he hobbled away before Maryl kicked him again or worse.

Maryl ignored the commotion around her. As far as she was concerned, as long as the other talent left her alone and didn't try to provoke a fight with her, she was just as happy to ignore them.

But she couldn't ignore what walked past her.

_Who in the fucking Blue Hell just made his way past me? I've never seen him before._

"Miss Goldan, your match is next, " she half-heard the backstage technician say.

Spitting her already-flavorless wad into a paper napkin she crumpled into a ball, Maryl stood in Gorilla, which referred to the holding area between backstage and the ring.

Maryl's jaw nearly fell to the floor when she eyed the slim, heavily-tattooed ash blond young man standing just in front of her. This young man was the one who had walked past Maryl just before her match was to begin.

In spite of seeing him with his back toward her, she could just make out the delicate butterfly-and-scrawls designs across his upper back and shoulders.

_Too many of those jealous curtain-jerkers (1.) in the back might call this pretty new guy's tattoos girly and soft, but I think they suit him just perfectly because unless you saw him with his trunks off or he turned around to face you, you might think you're looking at a girl from the way he's built._

This was because she thought the young man was too slim to fill out his silver-and-many-shades-of-green falcon-print trunks let alone put it all on the line against much-heavier Superstars. She definitely liked his sliced-up silver, green, and black arm sleeves, for she thought the arm sleeves and green fingerless gloves and green knee pads (he did not wear elbow pads) were a nice touch for his in-ring gear.

_I wonder what he looks like once I get to look at him face to face, _she pondered before reminding herself to get on with the business of making her in-ring debut.

"From Palatka, Florida-the WWE Women's Champion-MICHELLE MCCOOL!"

Michelle came to the ring with a blue-and-white-clad Layla in tow, much to the fans' disgust and displeasure. This was because Michelle and Layla were responsible for causing the bitter break-up between Maria and reigning I-C Champion Dolph Ziggler, and they also cost Mickie James her match against Natalya Neidhart. Add the heavier Beth Phoenix and the rest of "SmackDown"'s Divas were in for serious pain and misery at these heel Divas' hands.

"Who do you suppose Michelle McCool's opponent will be?" asked Todd Grisham, one of the "SmackDown" color commentators alongside Matt Striker.

"Our WWE Women's Champion owns victories over every Diva on the "SmackDown" roster, " Matt Striker ran down Michelle's 'Divas Conquests' and pondered, "Who will be her next opponent?"

_Okay, here goes nothing to lose._

"And introducing her opponent-from Baton Rouge, Louisiana-MARYL GOLDAN!"

As Breaking Benjamin's "Blow Me Away" blared away in the background, Maryl threw her head backward, her feet spaced apart and her left hand over her hair on the ramp before she made her entrance, not turning her back toward Michelle or Layla. She made her way up one of the turnbuckles and posed with both her arms in a messianic stance.

Michelle and Layla glared hatefully at Maryl's turnbuckle pose, Michelle more so than Layla.

But Maryl would not allow the sour, dour Women's Champion to crush her on her in-ring debut. She had already heard disturbing rumors about how Michelle treated some of the Divas when she was not busy throwing her weight around in the ring. Two former "SmackDown" Divas had already left "SmackDown" after ending up between the sheets with the Women's Champion, and the other Divas who were on "Raw" and "ECW" were too terrified to speak up about Michelle's violent bedroom behavior.

Maryl not only dominated Michelle from the outset with a hard right hook punch to Michelle's jaw, she quickly demonstrated that Michelle might get away with abusing and bullying Divas like Maria and Mickie but all bets were off when it came to getting in the ring with rawboned brawlers like Maryl Goldan.

""SmackDown"'s newest Diva is really laying it into the Women's Champion!" Todd exclaimed as Maryl continued to pummel Michelle with everything she had.

But Michelle was not the Women's Champion for nothing. Retaliating against Maryl for slapping her in her face in the locker room, Michelle attacked by leveling Maryl with a jumping knee to Maryl's jaw, almost knocking Maryl out. Michelle thought she had an easy pinfall win signed, sealed, and hers.

"1..2.." Maryl kicked out of Michelle's pin attempt. Michelle countered with a standing drop kick to Maryl's head.

To Michelle's dismay, Maryl ducked out of the way and countered with a throat thrust and an uppercut-style palm strike to Michelle's face. At one point, the referee was knocked out and distracted by Layla, enabling Michelle to strip one of the turnbuckle covers and expose the steel rings holding the ring ropes together.

"She's tearing the turnbuckle cover off, " Matt said as the referee struggled to make it to his feet.

"What's the new Diva going to do now?" Todd asked when he and Matt saw Maryl go on the offensive.

Maryl pummeled the Women's Champion with several strikes in the corner, forcing Michelle to cover herself up to no avail. Michelle might have had the advantage in experience, speed, ruthlessness, deceit, numbers, in-ring technique, and athleticism, but whatever else Maryl lacked in finesse and skill, she more than compensated for in physical strength, extreme stamina, and stark brutality. When Michelle missed a big boot running kick to Maryl's head, she failed to see her head being slammed into the exposed turnbuckle hard enough to slice open her forehead.

"And the Women's Champion is bleeding from her face, " Matt noted how Michelle sliced open her forehead. Maryl had Irish-whipped Michelle head-first into the exposed turnbuckle before slamming the dazed Women's Champion's forehead into the steel rings with a two-handed bulldog facebuster that left her reeling.

"Why don't _you_ watch where _you're_ going, slut?" barked Maryl as Michelle tried to pull herself into a standing position with the ring ropes. Before Michelle could attack, Maryl slapped her across her face violently enough to knock her down. Layla started to scream incoherently for the paramedics to fix Michelle's injuries.

_What the fuck? _Maryl stared at Michelle's already-reddening forehead and realized she was bleeding. If it had been Kelly Kelly or Jillian Hall, she might have shown mercy to Michelle.

_And I'm gonna bet my workshop and all its equipment that that's how almost all of Michelle's opponents end up flat on their backs staring stupidly at the floodlights while she gets to brag about her latest in-ring conquest!_

She shook her head indignantly at the very idea that Michelle would get to add _her _name to her rapidly-lengthening list of 'Diva Conquests.' These were all Divas she had either brutalized in the ring or ravished in the bedroom or sometimes both if she was feeling particularly brutal AND sexually insatiable. By now, Layla was already being forcibly dragged away from the ring by several other referees on tap.

Once Maryl realized Michelle was bleeding, she stepped up the pace and doubled the pain she inflicted on the already-wobbly Michelle. It was really quite easy for Maryl to do-simply picture Michelle gawking stupidly at her tits like an animal. Maryl dodged Michelle's Faithbreaker, which was a standing finisher similar to the Pedigree finisher that "Raw"'s Triple H used against his opponents to demoralizing effect except that Michelle's victims were held upside-down before she forced her feet between her victims' arms and dropped onto her knees, her victims' faces slamming onto the mat. (TNA's AJ Styles also used the Faithbreaker several years before Michelle did, only he called his version the Styles Clash.)

Maryl combined chop blocks to Michelle's ankles with running spears to her ribs and abdomen and fist drops to her already-bleeding forehead, countering the Women's Champion move for move before she leveled Michelle with the Goldan Guillotine, which was a body blow to the torso followed up with a low blow and a modified headlock combined with a thumb across her throat in an off-with-my-opponent's-head motion before she leveled the Women's Champion with a swinging sit-out facebuster similar to Edge's Edgecution that began with her using her legs in a low scissor grab just below Michelle's right knee and impacted with Michelle falling face-down onto the mat. Maryl scored the pinfall and the win.

"Here is your winner-Maryl Goldan!"

"I don't believe this, " a stunned Matt said as he saw Maryl's right hand raised to indicate that she was the winner.

"I think "SmackDown"'s newest Diva might be our WWE Women's Champion's next #1 Contender, " said Todd as Maryl left the brutalized, demoralized Michelle laying in the ring.

A/N: Let me know what you think of Maryl's debut and of my decision to have Michelle job (to lose a match) to Maryl.

1. An opening-match Superstar, usually a jobber.


	2. Remy Silver

_**The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon**_

_**by The Cajun Phoenix**_

A/N: I'm back. Want to see what unfolds? Keep reading.

Remy Silver

Maryl ignored the cuts and scratches she sustained on her right arm and the gash below her left elbow during her match with Michelle McCool because her outrage over being blatantly insulted was enough to enable her to pummel and decimate Michelle in spite of bleeding from her arm. But once the adrenaline wore off, it was all Maryl could do to not scream in agony.

"What a sick-looking gash!" exclaimed one of the male Superstars who had seen Maryl make her way backstage after her match. His blond hair was slicked down on the sides.

"Whose? The one on my arm or the one on Michelle McFool's conceited slutty head?" Maryl asked coldly as she edged her way past him, barely avoiding contact with his black-and-white leopard-print vest and gaudy pink and black trunks.

When Maryl spat her words about Michelle, the Superstar's face turned bright red with anger. But she ignored him and continued on her way.

"Did you see what happened to Michelle's face?" opening match Superstar Slam Master J asked. His blond hair was braided in tight cornrows, and he wore a white A-shirt, black cargos, and several silver necklaces.

"Never mind Michelle's face, " argued Jimmy Wang Yang, who was dressed in a black cowboy hat, a white A-shirt, and black jeans. "Who's the girl with the T-shirt, Daisy Dukes (1.), and stockings? Is she a fan or somebody's girlfriend?"

"I've never seen her around here, but I'd love to get her phone number!" a bling-wearing African-American Superstar wearing tight cornrows, a studded black leather jacket, black cargos, and black Timberlands said about Maryl.

"If she doesn't knock you on your ass first, JTG, " said a massive African-American Superstar with tight cornrows, a white A-shirt, a black baseball cap, several gold necklaces, faded stonewashed jeans, and tan Timberland boots. "She really did a number on Michelle's face during their match."

"Yeah, sure she did, Shad, " JTG wisecracked, twirling the chain of his gold money clenched in a fist pendant on his finger.

Maryl was not thinking about their conversations or their remarks about her. Her thoughts kept centering on the new Superstar she saw in Gorilla before her match with Michelle and its aftermath.

_Who is the pretty new kid with the tattoos on his shoulders and back? _

Then Maryl remembered that she never got a good look at the young man's face, so she had no idea who he was or where he came from. But she decided to watch this young man's in-ring debut from one of the backstage monitors before she bandaged the cuts on her arm.

_I don't even know if he is single or not. All I know is I might not rest until I see this little high-flying hottie again._

She was lucky to find a TV monitor and watched the reigning I-C Champion Dolph Ziggler strut his way into the ring clad in a black-and-white leopard-print vest and pink and black trunks.

_That's the same vest I saw when he made that comment about the gash on me or WWE's apparent resident cockslut Michelle McFool. _

Maryl's mouth twitched in disgust over the way Dolph flaunted his title because she thought Dolph was a selfish and undeserving champion just as she thought that Michelle McCool was an undeserving Women's Champion.

_Who's your opponent gonna be, you conceited Diva-dumping scumfucker?_

"And introducing his opponent-from Biloxi, Mississippi-REMY SILVER!"

Rev Theory's "Light It Up" was Remy's theme song, and as his theme song blared, Maryl could see him make his entrance as he stood on the stage while he was enveloped in an alternating, flickering strobe of blue light and green light.

She also saw that Remy had the same butterfly-and-scrawls design on his chest, his lean, lithe thighs, and his equally lean and lithe calves. He also wore a silver navel bar identical to Maryl's, and he also sported several pairs of silver earrings. His pale ash blond hair hung in long, lank, asymmetrical layers that framed his deceptively lean face. His entrance consisted of his running his left hand over his hair before flipping his head backward and making his way to the ring.

The pose he pulled off behind the ring ropes reminded Maryl of the pose a popular rock-and-roll superstar might pull off from his tilted head to his intense gaze toward infinity. Only Remy wasn't holding a guitar in his hands when he posed for the WWE Universe.

Maryl couldn't hear Matt and Todd comment on the match between Remy and Dolph. She couldn't even open her mouth to scream or speak. The only thing she could see was Remy outflanking and outwrestling Dolph with a breathtaking combination of high-flying moves, martial arts moves, and technical skill. When she watched Remy leap off the turnbuckle and level Dolph with a mid-air kick similar to former WWE Superstar Jeff Hardy's Whisper in the Wind, it was all she could do to restrain a breathless gasp of amazement.

_That's_ _n__othing like my beating the Unholy Hell outta Michelle McFool, and that's painfully obvious. Do those assholes really expect me to fight like the prissy little baby dolls they think all the WWE Divas are? They're in for a shock the next time I get in the ring! _

She saw Dolph duck under a karate kick before he missed with the Zig-Zag. Remy answered with a body blow to Dolph's belly and a running spear to his torso before he leveled the conceited I-C Champion with the Silver Arrow, a sick-looking sit-out facebuster similar to her Goldan Guillotine in that it began with a boxing body blow but that body blow was followed up with a kick to the gut instead of a low blow to the groin and there was no taunting gesture before Remy lifted Dolph into the air and dropped him face-first onto the mat, pinning him for three seconds.

"Here is your winner-Remy Silver!"

Maryl grinned faintly when she saw Dolph laid out like the conceited jobber he was. But she flinched at the cuts on her right arm and the gash below her left elbow before she trudged her way back to the Divas' Locker Room.

As she turned on the shower, she realized she might have bled on the canvas just as Michelle had bled from her forehead after Maryl slammed her into the uncovered turnbuckle. She winced as the water landed on her cuts, for the water's fluorine content was enough to make even a coffee lover dump the cupful down the toilet. As she watched the dried blood and soap suds going down the drain, she also winced at the reason she was on the "SmackDown" roster in the first place.

_Flashback_

_Maryl barely managed to untie the bindings around her wrists when she woke up. _

_"What the fuck-?" she muttered, groaning when she turned onto her side. Her head felt as though it had been slammed into the cage wall during one of a mixed martial artist's matches, and she felt as though she'd been thrown against the cage wall._

_Only she hadn't been in a cage match. Her ungrateful and unfaithful boyfriend had beaten and raped her and she had lost enough blood to weaken her. It was all she could do to not just sink into the now-ruined carpet and call it a day.  
_

_She remembered ending her relationship with Ben and then the rest became a blood-stained haze that ended with Ben's face twisted with hatred and bitterness. This was enough to jolt her awake and she realized her wrists were free when she saw the faint red imprints the bindings left behind. Any longer and she might have ended up having her hands amputated.  
_

_"No, don't fucking black out now, " she told herself, wincing as she fumbled with the bindings around her ankles until she finally freed herself. "If that pig that violated you comes back here, you're not gonna live through the next time he beats you to a pulp."  
_

_She crawled onto her stomach, feeling as alone as she had when Ben stole her car and used it to pick up his ring rats. The very thought of that made her retch. It was all that she could do to crawl towards the toilet, for she felt as though all the bones had been surgically removed from her legs. _

_Ben's blatant disrespect for her feelings was disgusting in its own right. But leaving her bleeding and ravaged on the bedroom floor was the final blow for her. It had shattered something inside her that could never be repaired._

_She bitterly recalled how she and Ben first met at her sporting goods store Goldan's Gloves. He had asked her where the boxing gloves and speed bags were on display, and things went on from there._

_"This was when I realized just how much I loved you and obviously I thought that you loved me just as much, " she reflected miserably. _

_But as it all sunk in for her that the Ben who raped her and left a battered and bleeding wreck in his wake was not the Ben she had once fallen in love with, she left behind bitter yellowish green bile and could barely pull down the handle to flush it away._

_Her female silver Cairn terrier Neveah had cowered in the corner during the bitter fight between Maryl and Ben. This was because Neveah hated Ben for abusing her owner so horribly and the little dog would growl and snap at Ben whenever he tried to hit Maryl. Now the tiny dog edged closer to the barely-moving Maryl and whined to get her owner's attention._

_A completely drained Maryl managed a weak smile as Neveah nuzzled her left hand. This was because Neveah never failed to look after Maryl in spite of her diminutive size. Whenever Ben had treated Maryl so badly, Neveah would try to defend her owner. This was another reason for Maryl's decision to kick Ben to the curb-he tried to force her to get rid of Neveah and she refused to give up her beloved dog. As far as Maryl was concerned, Neveah was more deserving of her loyalty than Ben was, especially when he refused to give up those worthless ring rats he wanted to go to bed with so badly._

_After all the times Ben disrespected her by bringing his ring rats through her apartment even after she refused to accept them as guests, why should she have to put her body on the line for Ben's ungrateful ass now? How much of herself did she really owe her now-former boyfriend anyway? Was it more than she owed herself?_

_Tears stung Maryl's eyes as she pulled herself onto her legs before she eased Neveah onto her lap. After Ben continued to bring in ring rat after ring rat even though Maryl refused to welcome them into her apartment, how should he have expected her to react? Did he really not expect Maryl to be bitter and jealous? Did he not expect her to beat up his ring rats so badly that they wouldn't be in any condition to harass the fighters? Did he really expect her to just stand there and act as if nothing was wrong? _

_No. She shook her head as emphatically as she could muster, cradling the tiny dog in her arms. The next time Ben showed up at her apartment, he'd find out the hard way what the Latin phrase **persona non grata **really meant!_

_There was no way she would ever forgive Ben, now that he chose to abandon her for the ring rats he longed to sleep with. _

_Still holding Neveah in her arms, she barely heard the incessant knocking at her front door._

_End of Flashback_

Her shower over, Maryl got dressed and grabbed her bag, resigning herself to the long drive to the airport. But she almost dropped her bag onto her feet when she caught a swinging door right in her chin.

"Ouch! Watch where you swing that door, " she snarled, grabbing her chin and whipping around to glare at whoever hit her in her chin by swinging that door. But she almost froze when she saw who emerged from behind the door.

"I'm sorry, " the young man said when he saw Maryl's bulging eyes and rapidly-reddening lower jaw. By now, her chin sustained a narrow cut that started to bleed.

"Wha-what the fuck happened to my face?" she gasped once she realized her chin felt wet.

Instead of answering, he used an antiseptic wipe to mop up the cut on Maryl's chin. He then bandaged Maryl's chin with a bandage smeared with antiseptic cream.

"Does the bandage help?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

As Maryl got a good look at the young man's lean and intense face, she quickly recognized who he was in spite of his street clothes, which were a black-and-white dragon-print T-shirt and black jeans. Faint beard stubble covered the youth's chin, cheeks, and upper lip, and equally intense aquamarine eyes stared back.

"So you're the kid who stood with his back to me in Gorilla, " she said once she saw who he was.

"Well, you're the one who knocked Michelle to the floor, " the young man said when he got his first full-frontal view of Maryl. (2.)

"She slammed me against the lockers head-first, " Maryl said, not taking her eyes off the young man, "so what I did to her is self-defense."

"Is it?"

"Unless you plan to testify to that in open court, " she said defiantly as she continued to size up the lithe blond who looked at her askance, "I don't see you being a witness to what she tried to do to me."

The young man looked at Maryl for a few moments. He had never seen Maryl before, so he had no idea who she was or where she came from either.

"What did you say your name was?" he asked.

"I didn't, " she said, her wary gaze softening just enough to allow the young man to get a better view of her face without wincing, "it's Maryl." (3.)

"Hey, Remy, who's the girl with the bandage on her face?" asked a soft, almost drawling male voice just behind Maryl. When she turned around, she found herself face-to-face with a black-haired, medium-sized Superstar in electric purple, silver, and black tights with the initials "MH" on the front and back and keys on the legs. He stood mere inches taller than the young blond and almost a full foot taller than she was.

"Remy? Your name is Remy?" she asked. The slim blond nodded.

"Matt, say hello to Maryl, " Remy said after a few more awkward moments.

Maryl looked at Matt, but she merely shook his hand since her mouth had gone too dry for her to even mutter a greeting.

"That's a really nice-looking necklace you're wearing-Maryl, " Matt said, swallowing nervously as he noticed the designs on each pendant she fitted onto her necklace. She soon recognized who the dark-haired Superstar was-Matt Hardy.

"Most people usually wear one at a time, " he continued, taking the silver "HB" pendant into one of his meaty hands. "But you're not most people when it's time to pick out which necklace to wear."

Now it was Maryl's turn to be nervous. Was Matt going to rip her necklace off her neck? Or would he have at least one copy of her necklace made?

"I'm pleased that you like my necklace's design-Matt, " she said as she straightened her necklace.

Maryl found a carelessly folded slip of paper next to her booted feet. She unfolded the paper and read it: **_Remy Silver _**and his cell phone number. She copied down this information into her black-and-gold day planner/address book. But Remy had already left.

A/N: I thought it would be really cool to have the WWE Divas bleed in this story since the WWE's TV-PG rating takes all the fun out of watching the matches. I chose to reveal Remy's identity here rather than in "First Night." And I chose to have Maryl and Remy meet backstage rather than in a barroom or a movie theater.

(1.) Reference to the shorts that outlaw cousins Luke Duke's and Bo Duke's attractive cousin Daisy Duke wears in the classic TV series "The Dukes of Hazard" [I don't own "The Dukes of Hazard."] except when the weather is too cold or for more formal occasions. This is something Daisy Duke has in common with WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The difference is that Stone Cold's shorts reach his knees and Daisy's shorts reach the top of her thighs.

(2.) Reference to the scene in the movie "Look Who's Talking" [I don't own "Look Who's Talking."] where single mother Molly, who is frustrated with her smart-alecky son Mikey's married deadbeat sperm donor Albert, gets to meet her son for the first time after James the cab driver makes like Evel Knievel (RIP, Knievel) and gets her to the emergency room before she ends up giving birth to Mikey in the cab.

(3.) Reference to the scene in the movie "Stormy Monday" [I don't own "Stormy Monday."] before the hard-as-nails nightclub owner Finney hires the jazz fan Brendan as a janitor for his nightclub The Key Club.


	3. Apology Denied

_**The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon**_

_**by The Cajun Phoenix**_

A/N: I decided to continue the cell phone numbers exchange scene from "Remy Silver" and give the classic Diva in distress scene a bit of a twist. Keep reading if you want to know what that is.

Apology Denied

Maryl exhaled as she wrote down Remy's name and cell phone number. She hoped to at least see him again at the next show. Since both she and Remy were on the "SmackDown" roster, this would not be as massive of an obstacle as it might have been had they been on different brands. And Maryl couldn't afford to overlook the Divas from "Raw" and "ECW" either. She could never be sure which of "Raw"'s numerous guest hosts might cut a deal with "ECW"'s Tiffany or "SmackDown"'s Theodore R. Long or where she might end up next.

Before she could consider anything else, she figured this was as good a time as any to see what catering had available. She managed to get a to-go carton of baked chicken, a slice of applesauce cake, raw new greens (she hated eating cooked greens because they looked stringy and limp), and at least two slices of chuck round sirloin.

"Don't you think you should apologize to our Women's Champion?" a deep female voice asked from behind Maryl.

When Maryl refused to answer, she found herself being spun around.

"Stop turning me around!" she snarled as she glared at the blonde Diva with several pink streaks in her hair. She surmised that this Diva was Natalya Neidhart, as the pink-and-black jacket, tank top, and tights were all trademarks of The Hart Foundation and its current incarnation The Hart Dynasty.

"What do you want?" she said, wishing Natalya would either finish talking or get out of the line.

"I said, don't you think you should apologize to our Women's Champion?"

Maryl exhaled, her patience wearing thinner than single-ply toilet paper. Michelle got her head split open because she removed the turnbuckle cover. Yet Michelle didn't have the heart to make her case directly to Maryl. Instead, she had to bully the other Divas into relaying the message to Maryl!

So what if Michelle ended up needing stitches to close the gash in her head? Michelle was aware of the risks that came with being the Women's Champion just as the male Superstars were.

And Maryl didn't consider her debut match against Michelle a cakewalk either-she practically got put through the ringer in a two-against-one handicap match all because Michelle didn't have the heart to get in the ring with her one-on-one. Instead, Michelle tried to cheat by bringing her little girlfriend to ringside just to screw with Maryl's head.

"For what?" Maryl was clearly disgusted with Natalya, and she wanted no more fights for the rest of the night. "I don't owe Michelle McFool any apology for busting her open in the ring and I damn sure don't owe her any apology for giving her the beating she had coming when she slammed my head into the locker."

Without another word, Maryl edged past Natalya and asked for a to-go carton. This was because she didn't want to pass out from hunger or thirst halfway between destinations. Her to-go carton closed, she wrote her name on the box lid and got ready to go to her rental car that would take her to the airport and home.

Maryl's mood had completely soured after her run-in with Natalya. Had she not left the third-gen Diva where she stood, she knew a second brawl was all but inevitable.

_How typical of Michelle McFool! She doesn't have the steel stones to confront me one-on-one about splitting her head open, so she forces another Diva to do her dirty work for her!_ _Not that it matters because I don't owe her any apology, and she's got no right to demand one from me!_

_Flashback_

_"Maryl, open this fucking door!"_

_Thinking that it was her ungrateful now-former boyfriend returning to rape her again and maybe kill her, a completely drained Maryl ignored the barked command and held Neveah as closely to her as she was able to._

_"Maryl, I'm gonna break down this door if you don't open it!"_

_Maryl winced because the last thing she wanted to do was deal with that waste of skin who had left her laying in her own blood._

_Maryl stared up but could barely move. It took her several moments before she could drag herself to the door and unlock it. But that was all she could do before she collapsed face-down onto the floor._

_From several feet away the male figure who was outside Maryl's doorstep was dark-haired and muscular._

_"Just like my worthless scumfucker ex, " she mused sourly as she raised her eyes toward the figure._

_It wasn't Ben at her doorstep, though. It was her younger brother Marcus._

_"Maryl, what the fuck happened?" he exclaimed as Maryl staggered to her knees._

_"If you're gonna blame me for what that scumfucker did to me, don't even say a word to me, " she rasped, groaning as she struggled to make it to her feet, only for her badly bruised legs to buckle, sending her to her knees but not concealing the damage Ben had already inflicted on her. _

_"Maryl, what the fuck happened?" he repeated once he noticed the dried blood and bruises on her thighs._

_Ignoring Marcus's question, she leaned against the wobbly orange-and-blue bedside table and tried to regain her balance. She barely made it to her knees before she nearly collapsed again._

_This in turn meant that Marcus would have to get close enough to help his older sister if she fell down._

_"You look like shit, big sister, " he said when he saw Maryl almost fall onto her face before he made his way toward her._

_Maryl could do little more than glare at her younger brother. What the fuck did he expect her to look like after Ben had raped her and left her bleeding on the now-stained paisley carpet?_

_Marcus would have definitely beaten Ben within an inch of his life if Ben made the mistake of storming back into the apartment. That was how much he hated Ben for leaving Maryl in the sorry condition she was in.  
_

_"Is there anything I can get for you?"_

_In spite of Marcus's hatred toward Ben, he still wanted the best for Maryl even when her decisions were at best questionable and at worst flat-out reckless. _

_"Just get my clothes, " she said, barely nodding toward her cherry wood dresser._

_Marcus did as his older sister bade him, packing a plain oversized slate gray T-shirt, a pale tan bra and underpants, and a pair of charcoal gray sweatpants into a black gym bag._

_"What are you gonna do, big sister?" he asked as he set an oversized white towel on the passenger's side of his gun metal gray Silverado (1.) and the gym bag on the floorboard.  
_

_"What do you think?" she said, wincing as Marcus helped her to her feet and then helped her into the passenger's seat of the Silverado.  
_

_Maryl brooded miserably on her ride to the hospital. She wasn't looking forward to pressing charges against Ben for raping and abusing her. In her eyes, the rape might as well be called a hate crime against her simply for being born a female since her former boyfriend was consumed with such toxic hatred and corrosive contempt that __she knew she wouldn't let him get away with his hideous hate crime against her_.  


_End of Flashback_

Maryl was already sweating through her T-shirt when she tried to start her rental car, only for the engine to refuse to crank. She tried again, but the engine refused to start.

_This is beyond fucking ridiculous! I'm gonna be stranded because the fucking car's __engine won't start? _

"Where are _you _going, doll_?" _asked a really cocky male voice as Maryl fumbled for her black-and-gold leopard-print cell phone to call for a tow truck to repair her rental car.

As the young man sauntered closer, Maryl realized this bleached blond in a dark blue and black dress shirt and black jeans was Dolph Ziggler. Unbeknownst to Michelle McCool, Dolph was also dating Layla El on a regular basis.

At this moment, Dolph's sexual promiscuity was the _last_ thing on Maryl's mind.

"Trying to get this car started, " she said tersely, not wanting to spend more time with the womanizing I-C Champion than was necessary. She tried to reach for her cell phone again, only for Dolph to grab her arm, knocking her phone from her hand.

"Why do you always leave before the show ends?" he asked as Maryl tried to block him from grabbing her arm.

"What business is it of _yours_?" she snarled, trying to wrest her arm free from Dolph's grip.

To her horror, he only held onto her arm more firmly, leaving several small bruises. "Let me go! I've got _nothing_ to say to you, and I will NOT stay here and listen to you belittle me!"

"Who said anything about belittling _you_, doll?" Maryl's dark brown eyes widened in shock and then in rage over what Dolph had in mind for her. "Even though it's _your_ fault that Michelle ended up getting several stitches in her head."

Maryl couldn't believe what Dolph just said. Michelle took off the turnbuckle cover and Maryl was being blamed for something the Women's Champion had done! Worse, Dolph had the gall to repeat this to Maryl after he had been pinned in his own match against Remy!

"Michelle has nobody but herself to blame for slicing open her head, " Maryl said angrily, scratching her fingernails into Dolph's right hand as deeply as she could and making his hand bleed. "And you stole that title you're carrying!"

"I never stole this title!"

"How come it reads 'John Morrison' and not 'Dolph Ziggler, ' you dirty Diva-dumping scumfucker?"

The Intercontinental Championship did indeed belong to John Morrison, as John was actually the Intercontinental Champion and not Dolph. But Dolph not only dumped Maria Kanellis, he stole the I-C title.

"I'm NOT a Diva-dumping scumfucker! And Maria cost me this title!"

"Big fucking deal!" Maryl snapped, her espresso eyes blazing with scorn.

"So now you're defending that worthless bitch?"

Maryl slapped Dolph hard across his face.

"You're the worthless bitch who dumped Maria so you could get in the panties of that chicken-headed slut who calls herself our Women's Champion! Stop wasting my time by demanding that I apologize to that chicken-headed slut 'cause it's never gonna happen." (2.)

The moment that Maryl said "Stop wasting my time by demanding that I apologize to that chicken-headed slut 'cause it's never gonna happen" was also the moment she realized the smart thing for her to do was call for help and get out of the parking lot.

"You vicious little bitch!" Dolph snarled, striking Maryl across her face hard enough to make the bruise on Maryl's left cheek even more painful than normal. "You split Michelle's head open and you blame her for what happened to her?"

"I didn't remove the turnbuckle cover, " Maryl said, her dislike toward Dolph deepening into intense hatred as she saw his hazel eyes glare down at her, "She did."

"And I didn't ram her head into the rings holding the ring ropes together, " Dolph countered, realizing Maryl wasn't going to assume any responsibility for Michelle's injuries or apologize for causing them, "You did."

Maryl had heard enough from Dolph. She wasn't going to apologize to him or to Michelle, and neither of them could force her to.

"You know what? Fuck all this garbage and fuck you!" Maryl shrilled as she made another grab for her cell phone, this time to call the local police and have Dolph arrested for assault. Instead, she found herself trying to fend off Dolph's blows.

"Who the Hell do you think you are?" he asked, trying to force Maryl into a closer embrace with him and becoming angry and frustrated when she pushed at him to make him get away from her.

"No! Let go of me!" she shrilled, her face completely mottled as she continued to shove Dolph backwards. Instead, he forced Maryl's jaw open and bore down as if to kiss her.

Maryl retaliated by biting Dolph's mouth when he forced his tongue between her lips, making a move to grab her cell phone. This time, Dolph grabbed both of Maryl's wrists as she yelled incoherently at him to release her.

"You beat Michelle _once_ and now you think you're the new face of the "SmackDown" Divas?"

"You've got no right to judge my match when you fucking _lost _to the new kid!" she snapped, lifting her left leg and stomping hard on Dolph's right foot. By now, she had grabbed her cell phone and was fumbling with the buttons as she tried to move away from Dolph to put some distance between them.

And she might have succeeded had she not lost her footing. That gave Dolph mere seconds to tower over her fallen form.

"How does it feel to land on your back, you pathetic cunt?"

An enraged Maryl had fallen onto her back and legs, but she wasn't about to stay on the ground if she could help it.

"What the fuck are you doing? Stop it! Let me go!"

"I won't let go without getting an apology from you, " he countered, putting his foot close to Maryl's neck and breastbone.

Maryl spat at Dolph, only to feel her throat being slowly compressed to the point where she had trouble breathing.

"Go straight to Hell, " she gasped, coughing as she tried to get Dolph's foot off her chest and neck. Instead, Dolph tightened his grip onto her.

Maryl's face turned red and then almost purple, her efforts at freeing herself all but useless against Dolph's grip. She wondered if her debut match would also be her last match.

She suddenly felt Dolph's grip on her neck and chest being broken. She strained to breathe now that she didn't have Dolph's foot bearing down on her.

"You know what the words "No!" and "Let go of me!" mean?" Maryl heard a male voice ask angrily as Dolph was forcefully pulled away from her.

"That bitch busted open our Women's Champion's head and you yell at me?"

"You already lost a match against the newbie, " the voice growled, lifting Dolph off the coughing Maryl as easily as though the blond was a small child, "and you try to kill this young woman here?"

Maryl could barely see the man who threatened to beat Dolph into unconsciousness if he did not cease and desist, but she could hear every word.

"Why don't you shut up and teach that gutter slut how to respect other people?" Dolph sneered defiantly.

Those would be the last words Dolph would get to say on that night, for he found himself knocked out onto the pavement.

"I don't owe that bitch an apology!" she panted as she strained to focus her vision on the figure headed in her direction.

"Maryl?" the figure exclaimed as Maryl felt herself being helped to her knees.

_First that jack-off tries to choke me and now I'm being yanked off the ground?_

"Maryl, are you hurt?" the figure asked as Maryl felt herself being leaned against her rental car. By now, she had recovered her bearings and could focus her eyes onto the figure who helped her.

"Remy?" she said, her voice all but gone.

Remy nodded before handing Maryl her black-and-gold rolling backpack. "You left it in the catering hall." (3.)

Maryl had been so preoccupied with getting her to-go carton and herself out on the road that she forgot her backpack.

"Th-thank you, " she said when she was able to speak more coherently.

"What's his problem?" Remy said as he watched Dolph limp away.

"What _isn't_ his problem?" Maryl then relayed how her match with Michelle McCool unfolded and how Michelle sliced open her forehead. "For a Diva who prides herself on intelligence and dedication, she should've known that when you untie a turnbuckle cover that your head can be slammed against it just as easily as mine could've been and hers definitely was, " she said with a weary sigh, grabbing her cell phone from where she had dropped it during her confrontation with Dolph. "Unfortunately, Michelle ended up getting stitches. How did your match unfold?"

"I beat Dolph and I'm a possible contender for the I-C title, " Remy said about his match with Dolph from earlier in the night. "But why would he confront you?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, " she said, getting a pen out of her black-and-gold leather waist-pack. "But had Michelle rammed my head into that turnbuckle, I could've just as easily been the one to bleed and not her. Then she'd laugh herself sick and then beat me up even more brutally had that happened."

Remy didn't argue with Maryl, though Michelle didn't almost kill her in the parking lot.

"I'm gonna try to start my car one more time, " she said as she got behind the steering wheel. But the engine refused to start. She got out of the car.

"This is what I'm dealing with, Remy, " she said unhappily. "If I can't get this rental car up and running, I'm gonna miss my flight for sure and get there late."

Remy got his own cell phone out and called the tow truck and the vehicle repairman for help. One way or the other, Maryl was going to make it to the next show.

It took almost four hours for the repairman to get Maryl's rental car up and running. By dawn, Maryl was ready to get to the next show whether she made her flight or not. But she was so desperate to get back onto the road that she almost completely forgot about Remy.

"I never got to thank you for helping me when Dolph was choking me with his foot against my throat, " she said, almost reaching out to hug the slim blond.

Remy looked puzzled. "I didn't lift Dolph off of you, Maryl, " he said, letting his arms fall slack.

"But I heard your voice when you helped me to my feet, " she said, dropping her arms.

"You did. But I'm not the one who knocked Dolph out, " he said as Maryl struggled to piece together everything that unfolded while she lay almost unconscious, "Mark is."

"I don't know who Mark is." She blinked a little before continuing, "I've written down your name and cell number, Remy. But I forgot to give you mine."

Now it was Maryl who returned the folded slip of paper by the boots method, this time with her name **_Maryl Goldan_ **and her cell phone number in a dragon-print address book/day planner for Remy. She had no idea if Remy would even call her at all. All she knew was that if she had to battle it out with "SmackDown"'s Divas for a shot at Michelle's Women's title, she realized it would not hurt to have somebody who was on her side.

A/N: Your feedback and reviews are always welcome as long as you don't flame me.

(1.) The brand name of one of Chevrolet's most popular pick-up trucks (I don't own Chevrolet or any of the vehicles' names.).

(2.) Reference to how Dolph broke up with Maria after he failed to defeat John Morrison for the Intercontinental, or the I-C, title, right before he loses again in Remy's debut match. In this instance, Maryl throws Dolph's failures in his face, and he bitterly despises Maryl for exposing him as the sore loser he actually is.

(3.) Influenced by the scene in "Look Who's Talking" when Molly forgets her purse in the cabbie James's taxi and James drops by her apartment to return her purse.


	4. Into the Unknown

**_The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon_**

**_by The Cajun Phoenix_**

A/N I've been running errands for my mother of late, so I haven't been writing of late.

Into the Unknown

Maryl's rental car had been repaired, enabling Maryl to continue her journey to the next town and then a brief layover at her house before she got back out on the road for more in-ring action. Maryl made no secret of her reason for signing on as a WWE Diva-it was a way for her to bring up her children and never have to count on her estranged mother Carolina or her ex-boyfriend Ben Marchand to not harm her children when she was in the ring.

Maryl never lost sight of her ultimate plan to take the Women's Championship off Michelle McCool's waist and snap it around her own waist. Before she would get the opportunity at a title shot, she would also be booked in Divas tag team matches and singles matches to give her more in-ring experience.

As Remy watched Maryl drive away, he pondered over what led him to sign onto WWE's "SmackDown" roster.

Like Maryl, he was a newly-signed talent who set out to shake up the entire roster and hopefully win title gold.

Unlike Maryl, he wasn't here because of an unfaithful former partner's vicious behavior, even though this was also true about him.

This was because after his former girlfriend Evan Spiars had all but given him the ultimatum of choosing his relationship with her or his WWE career, he knew he couldn't stay in his relationship with her without losing himself. And Remy knew that if he had to choose between his former girlfriend and his career, one choice would lead him to bitter resentment and the other could lead him to a leap of faith into the unknown.

**Flashback**

**"Remy, what the Hell is this?"**

**Remy exhaled as he found himself on the receiving end of yet another tirade from his girlfriend Evan Spiars. At that moment, Evan held Remy's letter he received from Florida Championship Wrestling, the developmental training grounds for prospective WWE Superstars and Divas.**

**"What are you doing now, Ev?" Remy was none too happy with Evan grabbing his mail. "Since when do you open my mail? You're not my parole officer and this is not prison!"**

**"Since when do YOU leave me to go to Florida for days on end?" She was still bitter that Remy had gone to Florida, but she was more bitter that Remy decided not to take her with him. **

**"I didn't even know I had to get your so-called permission to leave the state!" Remy said, his blue-green eyes darkening with dislike and resentment. Evan's disapproval of Remy's choices was a festering sore point for Remy and one more failed argument for Evan.**

**"Remy, what have I done to deserve to be left behind?" she pouted, all but wearing a hole in the pale grayish green carpet before she tried to hold Remy closer to her.**

**"What HAVEN'T you done to deserve to be left behind?" he countered, his arms slack at his sides, a clear indicator that he was not enjoying Evan's embrace.**

**"I haven't given you cause to think I was cheating on you. When we first started living together, I thought you wanted a more stable home life!"**

**Remy had no comeback for Evan since everything she said about his life was true. **

**But it was no longer what he agreed to. And as he adjusted his faded jeans and dark blue shirt, he had no doubt what he would choose.**

**"I didn't agree to allow you to make me choose between you and my career, " he said.**

**"You think I don't know that?" Evan asked defensively, shaking her champagne blonde Zexion (1.) and tying her pale pink robe more tightly closed. "Why replicate a career that mirrors your life?"**

**Evan brought up Remy's young life because his older brothers Alex and Issac struggled to keep a permanent home after their mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when Remy was 10 years old. Their mother died when he was 12 years old. When he was 13 years old, their father was gunned down, and he, Alex, and Issac had lived with family members until the day he received his high school diploma and his scholarship. **

**When Remy first met Evan, he was struggling to make a living in the independent wrestling circuit not unlike the defunct OMEGA wrestling promotion when his high-flying in-ring heroes Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy were still teenagers. **

**He wasn't going to deny that his time in the indies hadn't been injury-free. For a time, he was also badly injured and broke, forcing him off the road while he recovered from his injuries. It was all too easy for Evan to sweet-talk Remy since he was weakened from his injuries and barely able to do even the most basic moves let alone his hybrid style which combined jaw-dropping high-flying moves and martial arts moves. But as he grew physically stronger, he also became increasingly resentful of Evan's possessive and controlling behavior.**

**"And now you decide to try out for WWE without telling me? I thought we agreed that you weren't going to try to have a career in the WWE!"**

**Remy didn't like being told what to do, and Evan knew this when they became a couple.**

**"No, Ev. YOU agreed that I wasn't going to try my hand at a WWE contract."**

**Remy's angry tone of voice made Evan flinch. As much as he hated it when Evan tried to speak for him in social situations, he hated it even more bitterly when she started trying to decide his career for him.**

**"Stop throwing my words back in my face!" Evan snapped as Remy stalked into their bedroom and proceeded to pack his clothes and belongings into several cardboard boxes he had smuggled and unfolded. **

**"I appreciate you being there for me, and that deserves my respect." **

**Evan's face lit up a little bit at Remy's words. Even though she knew their relationship was on the rocks, this didn't necessarily make Remy ungrateful to her for helping him when he was broke and broken. In many respects, Remy owed his comeback to Evan's help.**

**But Remy wasn't fooled. He and Evan were mere inches away from each other now. The broken sunlight only served to further reveal how pale and ghostly Evan's face really was.**

**"I never agreed to let you decide what I'm going to do with my life."**

**Evan glared at Remy with nearly colorless pale green eyes, her champagne blonde Zexion hanging over her lean face in tangled layers.**

**"And I certainly never agreed to not follow my dreams and my heart just to keep you from nitpicking at me!"**

**Evan stared at Remy in shock and hurt. Yet even with his lean face marred by unmistakable anger, he was still a hottie and Evan considered herself lucky to have landed him.**

**"So that means I'll have to bow down to your wishes and your whims just to keep you? Where's the fucking fairness in that?"**

**Remy looked at Evan and shook his head. She didn't understand and she never would.**

**"When you and I first became a couple, you weren't always a jealous control freak, " he continued, just barely side-stepping Evan's attempt to grab him.**

**"A jealous control freak? Is that what you think of me as?"**

**When Remy refused to answer, Evan's face crumpled.**

**"How does not wanting to not be able to see you for days on end make me a control freak?" As Remy continued to pack his belongings in the boxes, she screamed, nearly ripping his dark blue shirt off, "Answer me, goddamnit!"**

**Instead, Remy** **pushed Evan off him and said, "This grabbing at me and trying to make me stay is what makes you a jealous control freak." **

**"I am NOT a jealous control freak!"**

**"If you cared about me, you never would have tried to stop me from getting my contract. And if you really cared about me, you never would have tried to make me choose between you and my career."**

**Evan didn't want to believe what Remy had just said to her. Nor did she want to believe that Remy would not come back once he and his belongings made their way out of that door.**

"**What are you saying? Are you leaving me?"**

**Remy didn't answer Evan's question. As he proceeded to load his belongings into his battered van, he tried not to look at Evan. What did she expect him to say? Was she really expecting him to stay after she chose not to return his love by supporting his dreams of performing as a pro wrestler let alone in the WWE?**

**When Evan tried to grab Remy's legs as a last attempt to stop him from leaving, that was the last straw for Remy.**

"**I'm NOT staying with you if that's what you want to ask me, Ev, " he said icily as he bent down and removed Evan's hands from his lean calves before getting to his feet.**

"**Then I guess that's it, " she shrilled bitterly as Remy packed the last of his belongings into his battered van. "You're dumping me and you won't even let me have any chance to change my ways and deal with your career choice! I fucking hate you, Remy, I fucking hate you! You'll be sorry you ever treated me like a side dish, see if you won't!"**

**As Remy started his van, he muttered under his breath, "I'm already sorry-that I didn't sign that contract sooner."**

**End of Flashback**

Remy pondered over whether or not he would ever see the attractive Maryl again under less grueling circumstances. But he felt an uneasy chill slice through the air. Would he and Maryl meet again at all?

**I realize I've only met Maryl Goldan at least once. But she seems to be a really nice girl. After being on the business end of Evan's nagging, the last thing I want or need is to relive her nitpicking and her jealousy.**

Sighing deeply, Remy packed his red, silver, and blue leather rolling backpack into his own rental car and set out to the next show. He had been booked for a house show but Maryl had not. He figured that he would have to wait until the next "SmackDown" to know if Maryl would make a return performance. He obviously didn't like Dolph Ziggler nearly crushing Maryl's throat with his foot after Michelle McCool ended up slicing open her forehead on a turnbuckle she removed the cover from during her match with Maryl.

**Maryl's right about one thing-she doesn't owe Dolph or Michelle any apologies for Michelle's stupidity or for the fact that Michelle sliced open her head as a consequence of her stupidity. And this time Maryl was lucky when The Phenom sent Dolph's slicked-back peacock ass running away with a weak bladder. For a second, I thought Dolph had pissed his pants. But what if Dolph decides to go after Maryl again and maybe this time he actually snaps her neck? She can't always count on anybody else being around to save her life.**

Remy shook his head in disgust over that possible outcome. He didn't like what the implications of such an encounter between Maryl and Dolph would mean. Maryl could definitely hold her own against the male Superstars just as she had with Michelle. But even Maryl's strengths had their limits. And if he was unable to be at Maryl's side while he was on the road, he could still drop by just to see that Maryl was not out of commission because of injury or illness or other circumstances.

He pondered over one of his upcoming matches-an Over-the-Top-Rope Battle Royal to determine who would get a shot at the I-C title. He smiled to himself as he pondered over what a shot at the I-C title would signify for him.

**An I-C title reign for me would be a very good beginning for my career. When the chips all fall wherever they will, what other reason do I need to follow my bliss and get in the ring if it's not for winning gold to go around my waist?**

Remy had no idea that a lithe, brown-haired, and pony-tailed male Superstar had been glaring balefully at him from the shadows just behind his car nor did he have any clue of the chaotic rivalry he would soon find himself embroiled in. But he did have his next match to look forward to.

**What I really hope to see besides my next match is the new Diva who made the Women's Champion her bitch. She really looks like she needs somebody as a friend because the other Divas and some of the guys in the back really have an attitude problem around her. It's their envy that makes them behave so horribly toward her, not her rookie status. And the same could also be said about me since I haven't been here for longer than last night and the many months if not years I've trained just to get here. **

This was because before Remy made his in-ring debut, he had spent several months as the rookie to former WWE Superstar Jeff Hardy even though Remy was never put on camera during Jeff's chaotic tenure on "SmackDown" for good reason. If word had ever gotten out that The Charismatic Enigma kept a rookie as his personal pet, everybody would have gone through Jeff just to get their shots at Remy. And this credo could not have proven more true than Jeff's bitter in-ring rivalry with his older brother Matt after Matt had cost Jeff his WWE Championship at "Royal Rumble" several months earlier (2.), though Remy often wondered if Jeff's title reign was not the only thing that Matt felt threatened by.

Many of the Superstars and Divas knew that Matt was also Jeff's lover when neither could be with the ladies in their respective lives. For many years, Matt considered himself the ultimate top next to the majority of the main-eventers and Jeff was not immune to his older brother's natural-born dominance.

Now the other Superstars had all come to know Jeff as a natural-born top in his own right with the entire gamut of their emotions ranging from disbelief to shock and awe to derision to flat-out hatred, bitterness, and envy all directed toward Jeff for netting the slender Gothic rookie for himself.

Only a few of them, including Matt himself and the Hardy brothers' closest friends, knew about the familiar curled pale seafoam green "JH" initials from Jeff's first singles run in WWE interwoven with Jeff's signature metallic purple Enigma cross insignia from TNA that Remy had emblazoned on his left hip after he and Jeff had consummated their student-and-instructor relationship. The tattoo on Remy's right hip was that of a variegated pink peony in full bloom and the Kanji characters for "enigma" and "seducer", two words that definitely applied to Jeff Hardy.

Those Superstars who thought Jeff should have been a top sooner knew Remy was very lucky to have The Rainbow-Haired Warrior as his mentor as opposed to somebody like Edge's former stablemates Chavo Guerrero, Bam-Bam Neely, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, although they still wished they had the slim Gothic newcomer for their understudy whenever they thought Jeff's soulful green eyes weren't piercing through their psyches.

Those Superstars who wished Jeff would revert to being a bottom all asked themselves this question to this day whenever they cast baleful stares toward Remy-what the fuck had Jeff Hardy ever done to deserve Remy as his rookie let alone as his pet? And what the fuck would spur Remy to hold so fiercely to the seductive Jeff during the latter's tenure on "SmackDown"?

None of their questions ever led them to the answers they clamored for. Indeed, all their questions led them to were more questions that would all but push them over the threshold of sanity.

And Remy was dead-set on making every single one of the envious Superstars who hated Jeff as a top also come to regret ever asking him, "What the fuck do you see in that painted-up freak we've fucked for years? He's always bottomed for us and now he thinks he can keep you away from us just because he proved to us that he's a top? Fuck him and fuck you, you pathetic little cocksucking curtain-jerker!"

Remy's lips curled into a half-smile that faded almost as quickly as it formed as he mused over the other Superstars' hateful comments about his student-and-instructor relationship with Jeff.

**"Fuck him and fuck you, you pathetic little cocksucking curtain-jerker"? That's all you have to say to me about my relationship with Jeff Hardy? We all know who the pathetic little cocksucking curtain-jerkers actually are, and I'm not one of them!**

He didn't even bother to bite back a sardonic laugh as he realized the same WWE Superstars who dogged Jeff for what he did in his personal life and also for mentoring him inside the ring and outside the ring most likely also wished they had him as their rookie.

Yes, that had to be it. All the other WWE Superstars had wanted Remy as their rookie and perhaps also as their pet from the moment that he had been booked for dark matches on the "SmackDown" roster and it ate away at them from the inside out that Jeff drew him toward him and proved that while he might be a painted-up freak in their eyes, in Remy's eyes, Jeff Hardy was and would forever be his Extreme Charismatic Mentor.

**It's because all of you want what you'll never get to have. And all of you who said Jeff would never win the WWE title let alone add two World titles and become a three-time world champion? You can all go fuck yourselves now. It's because Jeff finally wised up and quit being your bitch that you hate him now and you think because he's not on the roster now that means I'm easy prey for you. I may be Jeff Hardy's rookie, but I'm not your personal bitch now or ever!**

Starting the engine, he continued on his way, his mind whirling with how he would make his impact on the "SmackDown" roster and even win title gold along the way.

A/N: Your reviews and feedback is always welcome. And the flashbacks in Remy's backstory also form a counterpart to the flashbacks in Maryl's backstory. In later chapters, more on the student-and-instructor relationship between Remy and Jeff will be written.

(1.) A Zexion is a short hairstyle in which the hair is cut in long and asymmetrical layers framing the face and is commonly sported by people who practice the Goth lifestyle as well as Japanese teens who embrace the anime phenomenon.

(2.) The links between Jeff's title defense against Edge at "Royal Rumble" and Jeff's keeping Remy as his student and his pet also underscore Matt's status as "the ultimate top" (sorry, authors, readers, and reviewers, but I didn't give Matt Hardy the moniker of "the ultimate top") being threatened by Jeff's coming into his own as a top in his own right-Matt is not the only one who wants what Jeff has.


	5. Knocked Down By the Smallest Wounds

_**The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon**_

_**by The Cajun Phoenix**_

A/N: My thanks to Fanfictfungrl215, Kitty Guitar, faithisbeautyx, and ShortHiatusBeBackSoon for their feedback on this fanfic. Most of my files got deleted because of my uncooperative computer's processing system, so I did a rewrite and a retooling of this chapter and the ones to follow. Bless your hearts for your patience and keep on writing because I definitely will!

Knocked Down By the Smallest Wounds

Maryl groaned when she tried to move her left arm, only to find that her arm wasn't cooperating.

It had been five days since Maryl's debut match against Michelle McCool, and for the last few days Maryl's left arm had been red, swollen, painful, and hot to the touch.

Now she winced as she looked at her left arm just below her left elbow. It had swollen to almost twice its normal size, making it very difficult if not impossible for her to move. This had made even the simplest tasks such as getting dressed feel like mission impossible for her.

In addition to having a hard time moving her swollen arm, Maryl had not been able to pick up her three-year-old brother-and-sister twins Jeremy and Jessica the way that she normally would have.

"Mommy, who hurt your arm?" Jessica asked when Maryl winced after her attempt at lifting the twins ended with her left arm refusing to move. If Maryl hadn't set them onto the floor, she might have dropped them.

"Mommy's arm is gonna be okay, Jessie, " she said, using her worried daughter's nickname even as she tucked in each of the children.

"Jessie only worries 'cause she loves you, " murmured three-year-old Susanna as Maryl tucked her and her two-year-old sister Dinah into bed.

Maryl gave a wan smile as she rumpled the girl's hair.

Her sorrow was that before she moved to Florida two years earlier, Marcus sustained a severe aneurysm that sent him crumpling to the floor.

Maryl called 911 in a desperate effort to get her younger brother to the hospital after CPR hadn't worked to revive him.

The paramedics tried everything to resuscitate Marcus but he died en route to the hospital. Maryl hadn't even told either of their parents that Marcus died, and this was because they never really thought highly of either Maryl or Marcus and they never kept any money aside for funerals. Maryl alone paid the costs for Marcus's funeral expenses, including his casket.

_When it came time for Marcus's funeral expenses neither of our parents could fucking be bothered to pay for them. The only way they would even be bothered to come to his funeral was so they could avoid going to jail for drug trafficking and keeping a disorderly house and even that didn't keep the two of them sober for long. _

To this day, Maryl winced with bitter resentment when she thought back on that gray and stormy day of Marcus's funeral. It had cost her almost her entire savings account just to make sure Marcus's grave had a headstone.

Several months after Marcus died, Maryl was also granted sole custody of her younger brother's two daughters Susanna and Dinah in addition to Jeremy and Jessica. Her mouth twitched with bitterness as she recalled how Susanna and Dinah had come to her home, and this was because she never liked the girls' biological mother Lisa Bradshaw even before Lisa left behind a tearful Susanna and a diaper-clad Dinah on Maryl's doorstep without so much as a curt "Good-bye".

Making Maryl's hatred toward both Ben and Lisa burn even more fiercely was that Maryl was still coping with being a first-time mother herself when Susanna and Dinah were abandoned and Lisa was nowhere to be found.

_That fucking junkie cunt just dumped the girls on my doorstep like they were nothing but garbage. I thought she was gonna come back for them after she got her life in order. Instead, she picked the drugs and the unprotected sex over my nieces just like my worthless former boyfriend chose the ring rats over making things right between me and him. _

Making matters feel even more rushed was the WWE Universe's immediate and explosive reaction to her in-ring dominance over Michelle and to how Dolph had nearly choked the life out of Maryl in the parking lot over Michelle's face being busted open during the match. Almost all the fans thought Maryl had what it takes to overthrow Michelle for the Women's title, and they were fully prepared to throw their support behind the rookie Diva if that meant that Michelle dropped the Women's title and never got another shot at it for the rest of her in-ring career.

They were also equally disgusted with Dolph for damned near killing Maryl in the parking lot after she blew off his demand that she apologize to Michelle for splitting open her forehead. Who the fuck did Dolph think he was to demand an apology from anybody, especially from Maryl? He had stolen John Morrison's Intercontinental Championship in spite of not winning the title himself after he had challenged The Shaman of Sexy for the title four times and lost every single time, he had lost in Remy Silver's debut match against him after his mean and nasty remarks toward Maria earned him more punishment, and he was stupid enough to get punked out by the World Heavyweight Champion, The Undertaker himself.

_Saved by The Phenom?_ she asked herself before shaking her head, wincing as her arm throbbed painfully from her exertion. _No. That's not possible. How could it be? I don't even know who he is._

Maryl then remembered what happened when Remy caught up with her in the parking lot. She had left her black-and-gold rolling backpack in the catering hall in her haste to return home before she made it to her next show and Remy caught up with her to return her backpack to her before she left.

She thought that Remy had knocked out that womanizing cunt Dolph Ziggler. But she began to wish that he had when he said that he hadn't been the one who knocked out Dolph for trying to choke her.

She tried to piece together Remy's words to her as she filled a stainless steel teakettle with water and set the teakettle onto her gas stove's right front burner: "You did. But I'm not the one who knocked Dolph out. Mark is."

She then grabbed a faded towel, several squares of gauze, several rolls of gauze, sharpened scissors, surgical tape, and a bottle of lemon juice.

_Remy said Mark was the one who cold-cocked the piss outta Dolph for trying to kill me in that parking lot. My guess is Mark is his given name that his family addresses him as in the outside world when he's not in the ring._

Maryl smiled wryly as she realized that sometimes the in-ring world and the outside world intersected whether she wanted them to or not.

_But here in the in-ring world, he's either The Undertaker or The Deadman or The Phenom because he's also "SmackDown"'s locker room leader. And judging by CM Punk's crazed stare, he's got a reason to come after him for that World title._

Her wry smile wavered and faded since her immediate concern was how was she going to treat her left arm. A ruptured boil just below her left elbow had failed to drain completely four days ago, and it was this same boil that was causing havoc for her now.

_My next match is in two days,_ Maryl thought, groaning as she winced at her arm. _But my arm is fucking killing me now!_

Exhaling, she grabbed her X-Acto knife and sterilized the blade while she turned on the pilot light underneath the teakettle she had just filled with water.

_Flashback_

_Maryl winced as she rinsed her mouth. Of late, she'd been puking during the day even though it wasn't even cold and flu season, and she couldn't understand why this was happening to her._

_After several days of this, she bought a pregnancy test, followed the directions, and finally saw the plus sign that indicated that she was not just laid low by illness._

_"No," she muttered to herself as she read the results. "It's not possible."_

_She shook her head as she read her pregnancy test. Sure, her former boyfriend Ben Marchand had brutally raped and abused her when she dumped him after he chose to hook up with the ring rats rather than work on his relationship with her. But it had been almost four months since the rape and almost two months since she pressed charges against him._

_Maryl had taken a couple of other pregnancy tests and the results were the same as the first one. Finally, she made an appointment with Dr Alice Madison and took one more pregnancy test to see if she was actually carrying her despicable former boyfriend's and her unborn child._

_"You're pregnant, " said Dr Madison when Maryl shook her head blankly over the test results._

_Maryl's rounded face manifested her dejection over this news._

"_I take it this was an unplanned pregnancy."_

_Maryl's espresso eyes smoldered with rage as she was reminded of who was responsible for her pregnancy._

_"Unplanned pregnancy?" she shot back. "Try the end result of a cruel and vicious rape at the hands of my ex-boyfriend!"_

_Maryl's angry words caused Dr Madison to take a step back for a moment._

_Nevertheless, Maryl had an ultrasound done just to see how her pregnancy progressed and whether or not there were complications that would make her pregnancy hazardous to her own health. Since Ben hadn't cared about Maryl enough to put on a condom, a pregnancy could be the least of her concerns if he was infected with a sexually transmitted infection, including HIV and hepatitis, from all the times he injected himself with steroids and slept with the many ring rats he'd put above her.  
_

_Maryl waited for the ultrasound film to be developed as she emptied her bladder._

_"Let's see what your ultrasound shows."  
_

_Maryl muttered miserably, "How far along am I?"_

_Dr Madison gave Maryl the ultrasound. "You're almost three months pregnant."_

_Maryl sighed in disgust as she looked at her ultrasound. The news that her pregnancy was close to the end of its first trimester left her with a myriad of emotions whipping through her mind. _

_On the one hand, she wasn't so sure she wanted to carry a fetus that had been created after Ben had already beaten her up before he viciously raped her. Ben had done nothing to deserve to be called the father of her child let alone anything else in his empty, selfish life. The very thought of that steroid-shooting thug going for visitations let alone custody of her unborn fetus was even more sickening in Maryl's mind than the rape had been.  
_

_On the other hand, she also considered her unborn fetus to be more hers than her ex's and if he wasn't going to make things right for her child, she could and would sue him for child support. Either way, she would make sure she retained sole custody because if she couldn't trust Ben to not violate her, she had no reason to trust him to not violate her unborn fetus.  
_

_End of Flashback_

Maryl was shaken out of her flashback when the teakettle's whistle began to whine and hiss, reminding her to shut off the pilot light. She poured some of the water into a small bowl and added lemon juice to the water.

Maryl winced as she saw the blood and pus that lay in the sink after she made the incision. As revolting as it was for her to look at what had caused her arm so much pain that she might be forced to sit out at least three matches while her incision sealed up, her heart felt the same way when she and Ben had broken up on the ugliest terms she thought a break-up could ever happen.

She soaked several squares of gauze into the boiling water and lemon juice before she packed the gauze into the incision she had just made into her arm. This was one of those times she wished Marcus was still here because she knew he would have helped her to bandage her arm after he tucked in the children.

_Flashback_

_"You're pregnant, big sister?" Marcus asked as Maryl rinsed out her mouth after she had been doubled over by yet another bout of morning sickness._

_"Yeah, " she said, her voice barely above a hoarse rasp._

_Marcus's facial expression was barely readable as Maryl broke the news to him. But he had to process the news that her pregnancy had been a possibility, especially since Ben hadn't bothered to use a condom when he raped her.  
_

_Nevertheless, he asked, "Are you gonna tell him?"_

_Maryl stared at her younger brother as though he had just asked her to clean a leaky, filthy toilet with her toothbrush and then use that same toothbrush in her mouth._

_"Tell that scumfucker what?"_

_"About your pregnancy."_

_"What am I gonna say to him? "Thanks for knocking me up after you raped me, you disgusting scumfucker"?"_

_Marcus pushed back a tendril of damp hair away from Maryl's face._

_"Nobody said it was gonna be easy to tell him that he's gonna be a father and that he's gotta pay child support no matter how things ended, big sister, " he said, pressing a damp cloth to his haggard sister's forehead._

_Maryl smiled wanly as her younger brother wiped her face. As much as she hated to accept it, her younger brother had been right. She was going to have to tell Ben he had gotten her pregnant when he raped her. What happened next would depend on whether or not Ben chose to make things right for her child if not for her.  
_

_End of Flashback_

Maryl winced over the memory of how Jeremy and Jessica came to be even as she laid out the roll of gauze that would be tied around her arm. This was because that worthless scumfucker she once called her boyfriend had doubled his brutality when she had broken the news that not only did he rape her, he also got her pregnant with two of those sweet innocent children she had just tucked into bed.

"What's even more fucked-up is my ultrasound only showed I was pregnant, " she mused sardonically. "It didn't show I was pregnant with twins until I was almost six months pregnant."

_Flashback_

_"You're making this up."_

_Maryl slapped Ben across his face. "I'm not making up puking my guts out during the day, you sick and pathetic rapist!"_

_For a moment, she thought that her former boyfriend was just as likely to kick her in her stomach as speak to her._

_"So you're not making this up, " snarled Ben, though his black eyes continued to bore holes through the ashen-faced Maryl, who was still holding Neveah.  
_

_"Yeah, that's right, " Maryl said, her dark brown eyes glaring back at Ben. "And when you raped me, you also created this unborn child I'm carrying!"  
_

_"I'm not paying child support, you pathetic cunt!"_

_Maryl couldn't believe what she just heard out of Ben's mouth. Once her child was born, she was filing for child support and there would be nothing Ben could do to stop her._

_"I never said I was gonna have an abortion, " she said coldly, snaking her left arm around her still-flat abdomen as though she were in harm's way._

_Ben's face blanched as Maryl's "I never said I was gonna have an abortion" all but dangled over his head but his sneer had not changed._

_"The fuck you say!"_

_Maryl glared at Ben as if to say "Don't even fucking bring up your disgusting selfishness again because I don't want to hear it."_

_"We agreed we wouldn't-"_

_But Maryl refused to let Ben finish his sentence._

_"No, Ben, YOU decided you didn't wanna work on what we had." Maryl realized Ben wasn't going to support her child even though he was the father. "I never agreed to any of those terms you set for me and as of now I'm changing the terms."_

_Ben's sneer faded when he saw the hatred and contempt in Maryl's eyes._

_"What the fuck are you saying?"_

"_I'm not gonna have an abortion and I'm not gonna put up my baby for adoption!"_

_"You can't fucking mean that-"_

_But Maryl merely shook her head somberly and refused to reconsider her decision to keep and bring up her baby she was carrying. It was all she could do to not want to puke all over that miserable and ungrateful scumfucker she once called her boyfriend._

_"I meant everything I just said, Ben, and I'm not changing my mind!"_

_Ben's face blanched as it sunk in for him that Maryl was not fucking kidding when she said she was not going to have an abortion and she was not going to give up her parental claims either._

_"So that's it, you ungrateful cunt? You're just gonna fuck up my life because you're too selfish to-?"_

_Maryl saw the bitter emptiness in her former boyfriend's eyes and would have laughed at him if she wasn't still bitter and resentful over the cold and callous way that Ben had thrown away their relationship because he chose to bed the ring rats rather than make the effort to be a better boyfriend for her. _

_"That's what I'm gonna do, you useless deadbeat scumfucker, " she said, her voice cracking as she realized Ben had no intentions of ever being a dad for her baby. _

_"Even if it means having that brat and losing me, " her former boyfriend spat hatefully as he turned on his heel to indicate that he not only refused to support Maryl's unborn child but that he also refused to make amends for his hateful treatment of her._

_"Losing you?" she asked, all but dropping Neveah to the ground. "YOU abandoned ME, Ben, not the other way around!"_

_Maryl's rounded face crumpled and as she watched her former boyfriend all but leave her on her face, her heart shattered as the reality of Ben's cruel betrayal sunk in for her. _

_"I'm still gonna sue your self-righteous ass for child support after my baby is born, you sick and pathetic scumfucker, " she said, though her voice sounded so weak that only Neveah could hear her. Ben hadn't even bothered to stop and listen to her declaration that not only was she keeping her unborn child but that she was going to make sure Ben never lived down the shame and disgrace he brought on himself for raping her and again for abandoning her._

_Neveah had to wait a few minutes for her owner to regain her bearings before she nestled into her owner's arms._

_End of Flashback_

Maryl wrapped another roll of gauze around her arm and tried to get some sleep, though she knew it would be harder for her to perform with her left arm bandaged. Nevertheless, she packed her things and readied herself for her next appearance even if her next match ended up delayed.

_We used to fight through unbearable pain,_ she thought. _Nowadays the trainers get squeamish if any of us gets so much as a paper cut on our faces._

A/N: As always, your feedback is always appreciated.


	6. Hard Breaks And Qualifying Matches

_**The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon**_

_**by The Cajun Phoenix**_

Hard Breaks And Qualifying Matches

"SmackDown" was in Trenton, New Jersey and Maryl made her way through the doors.

Underneath Maryl's black leather motorcycle jacket (her jacket had a crimson ivy design almost branded into the material in a trapunto-style intaglio), her left arm was still throbbing with pain from the incision she had made after a boil had nearly sidelined her.

Yet here she was back in Trenton, New Jersey because the WWE Universe's response over her match with the Women's Champion made it clear that they wanted to see more from her and nobody was going to silence their clamoring.

"Our new Diva doesn't look so good, " said JTG to Shad as Maryl made her way to the backstage area.

Maryl couldn't bite back a cry of pain when one of The Hart Dynasty's male Superstars-Tyson Kidd-nudged her in her left arm while passing by her.

"That looks like it hurt, " said Tyson's tag team partner David Hart Smith as he got his first really good look at Maryl. Like Tyson, the son of the late WWE Legend Davey Boy Smith was clad in The Hart Family's signature pink and black in-ring gear.

Maryl barely bit back what she wanted to say to him. If she hadn't had that boil on her arm, there was little doubt that she would have beaten him senseless.

"You don't think our Women's Champion did that to her in the ring last week, do you?" asked Natalya.

_No, you fucking cunt, she didn't,_ Maryl thought nastily, barely able to protect her left arm from being knocked around before she made it to the trainer's.

"You're the Diva who beat up Michelle pretty rough last week, " said the trainer as Maryl removed her jacket, revealing a loose-fitting white Xtreme Couture T-shirt and her bandaged left arm.

"Yeah, I am, " she said with a wry smile that faded as she tried to move her bandaged arm.

"What happened to your left arm?"

"A ruptured boil, " she muttered, hissing as she tried to move her arm.

Maryl winced as the trainer looked over her heavily-bandaged left arm and removed the bandage. When he saw the yellow-stained gauze tinged with blood from the still-gaping hole in her arm, that was enough to get him to break the bad news to "SmackDown" General Manager Theodore Long.

"I'm sorry, Mr Long, but there's no way she can compete tonight, not with her arm in this condition."

Maryl was crestfallen over this news because it meant the WWE Universe would have to wait for the rematch between her and Michelle.

The best she could hope for was that she would not be sent out on her ass after her first week on the roster.

Her already-nasty mood only worsened when she stopped just short of colliding with the now-beltless Dolph Ziggler, who was already in his pink-and-white leopard print vest and trunks and boots as he set out toward Gorilla for a triple threat Qualifying Match with in-ring Dave "Fit" Finlay and Mike Knox as his opponents.

"What the fuck do _you_ want, you belt-stealing, Diva-dumping scumfucker?" she snarled at Dolph as several opening match Superstars whirled around to look at them. "Bad enough you blame Maria for your loss and you got punished again when the new Superstar beat your ass in the middle of the ring last week and when you got your ass choked out and knocked out in the parking lot!"

Because Dolph had stolen John Morrison's Intercontinental title and tried to claim it as his own, he had never lived down the disgrace of having his thievery exposed by a Diva who had only been on the "SmackDown" roster for close to two weeks. That Dolph had made matters worse for himself after dumping Maria all because he lost and Maria did not use the steel chair against the I-C Champion did nothing to enhance his standing in the "SmackDown" Locker Room.

"How about you just apologize to Michelle like a good little bitch?"

Instead of getting the undeserved apology, Dolph ended up getting Maryl's right hand across his face hard enough to leave a rapidly-reddening welt in plain sight. Maryl might not have said a word to the cocky Dolph, but her answer was clear-the Women's Champion would never get any apologies from her.

"You fucking little cunt!"

But Dolph didn't get to hiss another word because Maryl had kicked him in the groin, forcing him to double over if she hadn't completely caved in his genitals first.

Maryl speared him to the floor before he could react, pressing her still-healthy right arm directly against his throat and forcing him to try to suck in air as best as he could.

"I already told you I'm not apologizing to that whore Michelle McFool for busting her open and that's final!" she hissed into Dolph's face and held on to the point where he was coughing and barely able to breathe. She held both of his wrists with her left hand so he couldn't grab at her until she saw fit to let him go.

"What the Hell are you doing?" said a heavily tattooed Superstar who was dressed in shiny black trunks, black elbow pads with a curved white insignia embroidered onto them, black knee pads, and black boots.

"This bleached-out son-of-a-whore just tried to knock me down, " she growled, not even bothering to look upward to glare at the tattooed Superstar who had just spoken to her.

Unfortunately for Maryl, the tattooed Superstar who addressed her was not her new friend Remy Silver but the much-heavier Dave Batista, better known as The Animal on account of his sheer power and raw muscle.

Dolph tried to choke out a rebuttal but Maryl refused to release her forearm from his neck.

"I think he's had enough, " said The Animal as Maryl still had the now-gasping Dolph at her mercy-or at her lack of mercy.

It didn't soften Maryl's mood and it didn't make her any more inclined to release Dolph's neck.

_Who the fuck is that big inked-up beast to say when somebody has had enough pain?_ she thought bitterly as Dolph's face began to turn red and then purple before she realized that if she didn't let go, Dolph might not regain consciousness and her in-ring career would be over before it began.

After several more moments, Maryl let out a disgusted groan before she relented and let Dolph crawl to his knees. It would be a minor miracle if he even made it to his feet.

She started toward the Divas' Locker Room before Batista asked, "Aren't you the Diva who made the Women's Champion bleed last week?"

Maryl still had her back to Batista when he asked her about her match with the Women's Champion. Nevertheless, she should have realized that her match would draw attention from the other "SmackDown" Superstars as well as the Divas.

"I am, " she said, still not turning toward The Animal because she wasn't sure if she'd end up on the receiving end of a Spear from him or not before his match with the much-smaller and charismatic Rey Mysterio later that night.

"From what's been said, they all think you meant to make her bleed."

_Great. There's another Superstar who thinks I'm no better than a common street thug for what happened to that cunt we are sick and tired of calling our Women's Champion,_ she thought bitterly.

"Then they also didn't tell you she took off the turnbuckle cover and set herself up for what happened to her when she and I got in the ring last week."

The pain in Maryl's left arm made it harder for her to speak with the corrosive venom she was capable of using when she was angry, but the thinly-veiled impatience in her voice left little margin for doubt.

"No need to get defensive."

Maryl knew Batista had been a four-time World Heavyweight Champion and he had also briefly held the WWE Championship before "Raw"'s third-gen trio Legacy (Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase) had brutally injured Batista in a three-against-one mauling after the "Extreme Rules" event four months earlier. She had had the honor and opportunity to watch that event in person and she remembered watching from one of the cheap seats close to the railing.

But that was four months ago. This was tonight.

"Knock 'em out in your match tonight, " she said.

Batista continued on his way to where the Superstars and Divas warmed up for their matches. Maryl remained where she was until the musclebound superheavyweight had disappeared from her line of vision, not failing to note his closely shaven head and the massive dragon tattoo all over his back.

_Not even Remy's back has that many tattoos and he's got some gorgeous ink on his upper back and shoulders._

She continued on her way to the Divas' Locker Room but not before shouting back over her shoulder as Dolph continued to glare at her, still cupping his genitals where she had kicked him, "If anybody should apologize to anybody, you owe Maria an apology for dumping her like she was less than garbage after you already proved over and over that you're not Intercontinental Champion material, you selfish, self-righteous Diva-dumping scumfucker!"

She refused to back down on this matter and Dolph's condescending hazel glare toward her back did little to change her mind. Who the fuck was he to bring up the now-infamous "Crimson Mask Shot" now? The lucky fans who had a ringside seat and camera phones for that match didn't hesitate to snap their pictures of Michelle's bloodied face and they were equally generous when it came to sharing those pictures with their friends on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and every other available online media outlet.

_I didn't set out to bust open Michelle McFool's head. And unless she's planning to steal one of Rey Mysterio's masks to hide her shame, there's no fucking way our GM is gonna let her go home till after tonight's show is done like dinner._

This didn't stop Maryl from wondering how Remy might respond to those pictures of Michelle's face being busted open were he to actually see them himself.

Mickie and Michelle were already backstage with Chris Jericho, one of the co-captains for Team "SmackDown" at "Bragging Rights" (the other co-captain of "Team "SmackDown" was the bald fire-wielding superheavyweight Kane). No doubt Chris was recruiting five worthy Superstars to form Team "SmackDown" with him and Kane for "Bragging Rights" and nothing was going to stop him from looking toward the Divas if no worthy Superstars joined.

Maryl wasn't surprised when Chris made his pitch to the Women's Champion.

"If you're going to ask a Diva to join Team "SmackDown"," said Mickie as the Women's Champion acted as if she wasn't even there, "why don't you ask a Diva who has actually beaten all the Divas?"

Mickie had carried the pink-and-silver butterfly-plated Divas' Championship since "Night of Champions" before she dropped her title to Jillian Hall, only for the recently-traded Latina Diva Melina Pérez to make short work of the wannabe singer's title reign within mere moments to add the Divas' title to her multiple reigns as Women's Champion.

"Better yet, " continued Mickie as she nodded toward Maryl, who had just made her way to the backstage area with Maria in tow, "why don't you ask the Diva who pinned the Women's Champion last week?"

Maryl tried not to flinch, though her injured arm made that almost impossible. Making matters worse was that if Chris decided to retaliate against her for the low blow, she would have a harder time defending herself.

"I thought the Women's Champion was the only warrior woman, " said the first-ever Undisputed Champion as he sized up Maryl more closely.

"So _you_ say, Mr First-Ever Undisputed Champion, " Maryl rejoined sarcastically as she glared upward at Chris's chin but she made no move to strike him again.

"Had I known that you are actually a Diva and not just another ring rat, I would have asked you to be the next member of Team "SmackDown" instead of letting that spot be decided between an end-stage hospice patient, a greasy nobody, and one of my boyfriends."

Maryl bit back the impulse to tell Chris to go fuck himself. Nevertheless, she thought he was out of his fucking mind if he expected her to join Team "SmackDown"'s ranks when she had just recently signed her contract. Obviously her hot shot to the groin from last week set the first-ever Undisputed WWE Champion straight as to why she was in the building, so Maryl surmised that this was Chris's rationale for considering opening the final slot on Team "SmackDown" for her.

The dealbreaker was his snide remarks about Matt Hardy and especially about Remy. How fucking dare he insult both of them in that manner.

What Maryl didn't know was that Matt Hardy was also one of Chris's favorite sexual partners, though if she had known, she wouldn't know whether to laugh at Chris for being one of the few Superstars to be able to top The Sensei of Mattitude or roll her eyes over who would bottom for who first.

"Yeah. I'm sure you would have, " she said before continuing on her way, this time without sarcasm lacing her words.

When Beth addressed Michelle and bragged that she would take the Women's title from Michelle, that was enough to make Maryl confront The Glamazon.

"What makes you think _you're_ gonna take the Women's title?" Maryl shot back, her eyes like espresso ice as they glared back at the now-wide-eyed Beth.

Mickie and Maria were not far behind.

Unfortunately, Dolph chose the wrong moment to rub his win into the three Divas' faces.

Mickie and Maria glared at Dolph but Maryl had just about had enough of his antics.

Maryl stomped on Dolph's left foot, giving her just enough time to grab him from behind in a sleeper hold.

"Nobody gives a shit about your goddamned tainted win, you arrogant, selfish, self-righteous Diva-dumping scumfucker!" she hissed as the bleached-blond former Spirit Squad member tried to right himself but with little success. "Now apologize to Maria like a good little bitch, Dolphina, or get kicked in the groin again!"

"Apologize to that cunt?" he demanded, unable to move as Maryl used her right arm against his neck. "Now I know you've lost your mind-"

Maryl dug her fingernails into Dolph's left forearm to emphasize that she was not joking, savoring the moment as he flinched in pain and she might have also drawn blood by gouging into his forearm.

"Apologize to Maria NOW, you pathetic cunt, or I'll make sure you end up with your balls shoved all the way into your throat!"

With Maryl's fingernails boring into his skin and her right arm against his neck, Dolph was left with no other choice but to comply with the new Diva's demands.

"All right, you bitch, I'm sorry-" he muttered to Maria, who was now at Maryl's left with Mickie at her right.

Maryl wasn't satisfied with Dolph's weak-assed apology, and from the way that Mickie and Maria shook their heads at him in anger and disgust, it was obvious they didn't believe his apology was genuine either.

"I think Maria's got a few choice words to say to that so-called 'apology' you just said, " said Maryl seconds before she and Mickie Irish-whipped Dolph so that his back had hit the wall.

Maria did indeed answer her former boyfriend's callously dumping her-she answered with two hard slaps to each side of his face before he stared back at the three Divas in dumb shock and blank hatred.

"You're a weak, pathetic bitch who threw away your relationship with me and all for what? So you could blame me for your loss?" Maria said as Dolph glared hatefully at her. "And I didn't cost you that title! You did! You say you don't see me as being a part of your life? Well, I don't want to be a part of your life if you're going to blame me for your losses because you're exactly what Maryl said you are!"

Mickie grinned as Dolph was left nursing several bruises.

On tap was a triple threat qualifying match for a spot on Team SmackDown at "Bragging Rights" between Eric Escobar, Matt Hardy, and Remy Silver.

Remy had on dark red trunks with a variegated black-and-blue dragon, sliced-up dark red arm sleeves, sliced-up navy blue arm sleeves, navy blue knee pads, and dark red fingerless gloves.

"It wasn't enough Dolphina Ziggles couldn't take the I-C title from John Morrison last week, " said Maryl as "Light It Up" blared away and Remy made his entrance. "Our GM punished him by making him get in the ring against that pretty hottie on the same night and he _still_ lost."

"Served him right, " agreed Mickie.

Matt and Eric began the match with Matt ducking Eric's closed fist and countering closed fist for closed fist, only for Remy to separate them with a palm strike to Eric's jaw before Matt's fist connected.

Matt attempted to cinch in a headlock but Eric threw Matt to the mat only to run into a forearm smash from Remy for his trouble.

Matt's backslide pin only got a two-count when Remy drove his forearm into Matt's back.

Eric tried to go after Remy, only for Matt to roll up the greasy Eric for a one-count.

Matt tried to cinch in a headlock on Remy, who slid out of the hold before a fist fight between Matt and Eric ensued. Eric countered Matt's Irish whip into a clothesline.

But Remy broke up the pin after a two-count.

"Silver's not letting either of them get the fall, " noted Todd.

Eric lifted Matt up again before clotheslining him back down, only to run into a flurry of fast strikes from Remy.

Eric tried to pin Matt again, only to get another two count when Remy broke up the pin with a baseball slide kick to Eric.

This sparked a grappling match between Remy and The Sensei of Mattitude.

Eric tried to cinch on a chinlock, but Remy had connected with a low-swinging kick to Eric's jaw, his own momentum sending Matt to the canvas underneath Remy for a two-count.

As Matt made it to his feet, Eric punched at and then body-slammed Matt to the mat before he missed The Sensei of Mattitude with a splash. The two traded punches for a while until Matt brought down Eric with the Side Effect.

Eric kicked out of the pin after a two-count, only for Remy to come after him with a second low-swinging kick to Eric's jaw before he tried to pin Eric himself.

Matt climbed on top of the turnbuckle and let loose with an elbow drop on the greasy Eric's ribs, forcing Remy to break his pinfall attempt.

Maryl was livid when Vickie started climbing on the ring apron.

"What's that bitch doing on the ropes?" asked Maryl from the backstage area as Vickie started interfering in the match.

Vickie distracted Matt before he could deploy his Twist of Fate finisher, which was a twisting neckbreaker that sent the hapless Superstar or Diva face-first into the mat, on Eric, only for Remy to yell at Vickie to stop making a fool of herself and to stop trying to lie, cheat, and steal her way to a win.

Vickie didn't take Remy's angry words too well and struck him in the face, making the blond Goth lose his footing before he fell hard on the mat.

As Vickie all but sent Remy sprawling, Eric sent Matt into the steel part of the turnbuckle and grabbed Matt by the tights for the cheap and dirty win.

Maryl's blood all but boiled with outrage over how Vickie Guerrero's distraction and interference had proven costly for both Matt and Remy even though Matt had gotten pinned. And she was determined that Vickie would not cost Remy another match if she could help it.

"You hate that bitch, don't you?" Mickie asked as Maryl's espresso eyes widened with fury over Vickie's cheap and dirty tactics.

Maryl nodded-if she tried to put her hatred toward Vickie into words, the end result might have sounded like a barrage of profanities even a hardened prison inmate might cringe to hear.

"Raw"'s United States Champion was Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, one of a handful of former "WWE Tough Enough" contestants who went on to make a name for themselves in the WWE and he was also the Intercontinental Champion's former tag team partner when they wreaked havoc on ECW together with their talk show "The Dirt Sheet" when they weren't flaunting their WWE Tag Team Championships.

But that had all ended several months ago at "WrestleMania 25" and they had since gone their separate ways.

"You don't like their show?" asked a soft voice. Remy's voice.

Maryl shook her head, no, she didn't like the return of "The Dirt Sheet" at all. Hell, she hadn't enjoyed their Internet-exclusive show since its debut for that matter.

"How's your arm holding up?" he asked as he took a seat next to Maryl.

"Not enough for the trainer to clear me for the rematch between me and Michelle McFool, " she said, "at least not this week."

"That's too bad about your arm."

Maryl nodded.

"I hate that bitch for costing you a chance to be on Team "SmackDown", Remy."

The slim blond paled a little at Maryl's mention of his match earlier that night.

"You saw what happened too, " he said with a wry shake of his head.

"Yeah."

The reigning Intercontinental Champion then mentioned his former tag team partner's change in in-ring gear and even levied a few fat kid references for added insult.

"Bad enough we get this bullshit over who is the Jannetty, " Maryl said more to herself than to Remy or to anybody else, "Now we're gonna have to listen to our I-C Champion's fat jokes against "Raw"'s United States Champion too?"

"That's not all he's going to say, " murmured Remy, though he could read that Maryl was as close to white-knuckling her way through the former tag team partners' promo as any addict would white-knuckle their way through withdrawal.

This was because Maryl had grown up with similar verbal abuse about her weight directed against her. She could not even recall how many times she had been nagged at with criticism such as "If only you'd lose several pounds" until she would snap at the offender to mind his or her own fucking business.

When her own parents had the audacity to criticize her about her weight, neither of her parents thought they would be on the receiving end of her wrath until she took a wooden baseball bat and knocked both of them out cold before she called the cops on them and said that her parents had beaten each other senseless in a domestic violence matter.

_Why shouldn't I have made that report?__ It's not as though my parents weren't already abusing each other on a regular fucking basis while in a drug-induced haze before they thought they were gonna take out their misery on me and Marcus._

With all the negativity from her family that crackled like so much rotten driftwood about to become a raging inferno with one spark, she considered it a minor miracle that she had not succumbed to anorexia nervosa or to bulimia nervosa.

_Why the fuck do they think I took up boxing and wrestling? In both sports, there's no place for those skinny walking corpses who look like end-stage AIDS patients and those people who probably look perfect on the outside but they have rotten teeth and they can't even take a shit without laxatives and anything else they use and abuse just so they don't have to hear "You're fat, you're ugly, you're subhuman, you're worthless" beating them down. _

Maryl found herself more disgusted over Michael Cole's lame-assed comment about having to 'protect the shield', whatever the fuck that meant, than she did over John Morrison's remarks about The Miz's new trunks. As far as she could see, Michael Cole was also the same "Raw" color commentator who puked all over Chris Jericho's shoes at the Decade of "SmackDown" bash two weeks earlier and he didn't have what it takes to protect any shields whatsoever.

Maryl and Remy watched the dreadlocked R-Truth try to take down the ponytailed Drew McIntyre for a spot on Team "SmackDown", though Remy didn't recognize that Drew was also the same Superstar who had shadowed him without his knowledge in the parking lot last week because his back had been turned toward Drew.

Unfortunately, R-Truth hadn't been able to stop Mr McMahon's Chosen One from snagging a spot on Team "SmackDown" for "Bragging Rights" and neither Maryl nor Remy was impressed with Drew's in-ring tactics.

Maryl watched the conversation between Batista and the much-smaller Rey before their one-on-one match.

"Maybe it's just that I had another run-in with Dolphina Ziggles after I got sidelined this week from my arm, " she said, "but something doesn't feel right about this singles match between Batista and Rey."

Remy was not happy that Dolph hadn't learned his lesson when The Undertaker knocked him out in the parking lot last week.

"This match doesn't feel right, but not for the reasons Batista said, " said Remy.

Maryl and Remy watched The Undertaker's promo for his title defense against CM Punk before the singles match between Batista and Rey.

"Was Rey the reason you got in the ring?" she asked as the match between Batista and Rey continued.

"Yes, though he's not the only reason I signed the contract to step in the ring."

In truth, Remy got into the ring and began his WWE career as Jeff Hardy's rookie a year earlier before he and Maryl ever met.

Maryl and Remy watched the post-match handshake between Batista and Rey, though Maryl thought there was something wrong with what she saw when Batista tried to point out that his shoulders weren't down when the referee made the three-count.

"If Batista and Rey really are such close friends, " Maryl asked as she and Remy watched the post-match fallout, "then why the fuck does it feel fake when Batista just tended to Rey?"

Remy had no answers for Maryl at that moment, though little did either of them know was that that match between Batista and Rey foreshadowed an even darker and uglier rivalry between the former WWE Tag Team Champions.

A/N: Maryl helps Maria get a little payback against Dolph (he had it coming) before she makes her claim for the Women's title.

My sincerest apologies for comparing anorexic nervosa patients to patients suffering from any chronic and terminal illnesses such as cancer, AIDS, and any other medical conditions that also cause physical emaciation.

As always, your feedback and reviews are appreciated.


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